From Kasese town, on clear mornings, you can still see snow on the Rwenzori peaks. Local people call them the Mountains of the Moon — the name Ptolemy gave them in the 2nd century AD. But the snow you see today is a relic. The glaciers beneath it have been retreating for a century, and climate scientists say they will disappear entirely within this decade.
Uganda contributes approximately 0.05% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Its glaciers are dying because of decisions made in boardrooms and parliaments ten thousand kilometres away.
We spent two weeks in the Rwenzori foothills speaking with farmers, fishermen on the Muzizi River (fed by Rwenzori meltwater), and scientists from Makerere University's Institute of Environment and Natural Resources. The picture they describe is not abstract. It is water.
The Muzizi River irrigates smallholder farms across Kyenjojo and Kamwenge districts. In the 1990s, it ran year-round. In recent dry seasons, it has slowed to a trickle for weeks at a time. Women walk four kilometres to collect water from secondary springs. Fishing communities are moving.
"We don't have a word in our language for a mountain without ice," says Emmanuel Bwambale, a 67-year-old farmer from Kilembe. "When I was young, my grandfather pointed at the white peaks and said: as long as those are there, we have water. Now I don't know what to tell my grandchildren."