Ugandan Swamp Helps Stiglitz Show Benefits Beyond GDP

A swamp that filters sewage from Uganda’s capital Kampala is providing ammunition for Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and lawmakers from at least 86 nations seeking ways to save oceans and the atmosphere.

The Nakivubo swamp, where wastewater flows from the city toward Lake Victoria, provides as much as $1.75 million a year in purification services. Without it, Kampala would need a sewage plant costing at least $2 million a year, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The findings helped prod the city into protecting the area.