Uganda, DR Congo head off dispute as river alters border

The border between Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo is being redrawn — by a river!

Technocrats from the two countries are quietly working to head off a dispute as River Semliki, which defines part of their common frontier, rapidly changes course.

A joint committee of surveyors is now drawing upon a 1915 agreement between Britain and Belgium to plot a boundary based on geographical co-ordinates instead.

Randomly ceding huge chunks of territory in a wild give and take, the Semliki River has changed course so much over the past half-century that it has transferred as much as 50 square kilometres of Congolese territory to Uganda.

The river flows from Lake Edward to Lake Albert — with tributaries joining it from the northern slopes of the Rwenzori mountains.

Experts have lately been warning that climate change could see the flaring up of new conflicts around the region as natural features change character.

The recent shifts in the course of the Semliki are being attributed to the melting of glaciers on the Rwenzori.

These have seen new tributaries join the river.

As a result, experts are struggling to keep track of the original borderline.

Speaking at the recent launch in Kampala of a report on climate change by the UK’s Department for International Development, a Makerere University zoologist, J.B Kaddu, said besides threats to traditional mountainside livelihoods, climate change also had the potential to provoke new conflicts between countries whose borders were defined by variable natural features such as water bodies.

Equally, border issues like the Migingo island saga that has pitted Uganda against its eastern neighbour, Kenya, could become more complicated if a further fall in Lake Victoria water levels increases the size of the island above water.

Seen as a permanent feature back then, the Semliki, which flows through Semliki National Park in Uganda before draining into Lake Albert, was used to define part of the border between Belgian Congo and Uganda in the late 19th century.

But with its volume and course determined by the amount of runoff from the Rwenzori Mountains, the melting of glaciers as a result of higher temperatures has seen the river vary course in recent times.

According to Prof Kaddu, the glaciers have recessed from four to 1.7 square kilometres during the 40 years to 1996.

The National Environment Management Authority’s State of the Environment Report 2008 reveals that the river changed its course in a total of 151 locations — 84 inside Uganda and 66 inside the DRC, as seen from satellite imagery.