Floods in Kampala
The office of the Prime Minister through the Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Refugees Ministry is seeking Shillings 20 billion to prepare for the destructive rains expected to start this month and run to May this year.
According to the Uganda meteorological authority, the first major rain season covering March, April to May is getting established in the southwestern, western and Lake Victoria basin parts of the country. The prediction is of average to enhanced rainfall with high probability in the eastern and northeastern parts.
Esther Davina Anyakun, the State Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, says that over 48 districts in Lango, Teso, Karamoja, Bugisu, Sebei, Bukedi, Busoga Kigezi and parts of Ankole and Bunyoro sub-regions are at high risk of waterlogging, windstorms and landslides during this period.
She says that the Ministry is looking at the temporary relocation of high-risk communities, supporting families in safer areas and mobilizing short to medium term support from government and development partners.
According to Anyakun, they currently mainly depend on contingencies from the ministry of finance every time there is a catastrophe or disaster.
She explained that their annual budget allocation is like a drop in an ocean.“We have an allocation of Shillings 12 billion annually and that is like a drop in an ocean on issues of disaster response, and we are engaging the Ministry of Finance to always give us a priority,” she told journalists a press briefing at the government-owned media center on Tuesday.
The National Policy for Disaster Preparedness and Management policy tasks the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development in liaison with the Office of the Prime Minister to develop and present to cabinet and Parliament; a National Disaster Preparedness and Management Fund Bill.
And that the ministry responsible for disasters and all ministries shall secure adequate resources to implement disaster preparedness and management activities. Line ministries shall also plan and budget for disaster risk reduction activities within their respective ministerial mandates.
It also mandates parliament to ensure that adequate resources and facilities are provided to the Office of the Prime Minister – Directorate of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees to enable it to perform its functions effectively.
However, this hasn’t been implemented. Information from the ministry indicates that up to 2,216 people have so far been displaced in different parts of Uganda due to landslides and flooding. And the major problem faced in the relocation process is underfunding, land fragmentation and hesitance from the affected people who resist relocation.
According to the minister, President Museveni directed them to design a disaster risk management plan worth USD 50 million, which she says is read and only awaiting cabinet approval. Under this new management plan, when one is relocated from one place to another, the land which they formally occupied automatically becomes government land and will be used for environmental promotional activities under the ministry of environment.
Records show that many people relocated from areas prone to landslides in the Bugisu sub-region, have hesitated to relocate and gone back to their former places thus exposing their lives to risk once again. The minister says when their plan is approved, it will be illegal for anyone to go back to their former area of residence from which the government would have reallocated them.
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