Government through the Ministry of Works and Transport, Ministry of Water and Environment and Office of the Prime Minister is seeking for Shs45bn supplementary budget to help address the impact of rising water levels in the country a few days to the end of the 2020/21 Financial Year.
Appearing before Parliament’s Budget Committee on Tuesday, Acting Permanent Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister, James Dombo informed Parliament that Shs7.5bn will be used to ensure the safety of hydro-electric dams, in which they plan to undertake surveillance on lakes and other water bodies, physical surveillance of wetlands with potential to detach and move into water bodies, provide technical guidance on which floating islands to remove and guide removal process.
Government also intends to spend Shs32bn on the protection of lives and property in which they plan to acquire live saving and personal protection equipment, map flood prune areas, sensitise people within wetlands, immediately evict illegal settlers from flood pone areas, resettle people displaced by floods, repair drainage structures like bridges among others while Shs2.2bn will be for surveillance and operations
Florence Adong, Director of Water Resources Management at the Ministry of Water and Environment informed MPs that the problem of high water levels is not likely to end soon as they had anticipated January, July and September to be sunny but the recent forecast reveals otherwise.
