No money to combat flood impact

Nov 30, 2012

He helplessly watched as the floods swept away his garden. A few days later, his house collapsed and Opio, like thousands of other people in Gweri sub-county, Soroti district, became homeless.

By Gerald Tenywa 
 
He helplessly watched as the floods swept away his garden. A few days later, his house collapsed and Opio, like thousands of other people in Gweri sub-county, Soroti district, became homeless.
 
The heavens over the entire Teso region had been occasionally giving the residents what they needed, but now, the rain poured continuously for days, making the entire sub-county inhabitable. 
 
“I had never had such an experience,” Opio told New Vision about the floods that swept through eastern Uganda a decade ago. 
 
Robert Ecuru, a resident of Awoja village in Gweri, who lost almost his entire herd to starvation and diseases, says the floods are mild, but frequent. “We are getting floods almost every year.”
 
He explains that the floods have made life difficult by escalating the cases of malaria and water-borne diseases. 
 
The most recent floods, according to Ecuru, have led to rotting of root crops such as potatoes and cassava, which are important stable food crops in the region. Others are millet and rice. “We are giving up on root crops because the moment this place floods, the tubers rot,” says Ecuru.
 
He adds that rice is the only crop that is favoured by the changing weather conditions. 
 
Changing rainfall patterns, environmental destruction   
 
According to Francis Opolot, the Soroti district environment officer, the rainfall patterns have changed. He says too much rain falls in a short time. This, according to Opolot, has been accompanied by change of land use that has left the ground bare. He says this has overstretched the ability of the ground to absorb water, leading to run off and consequent flooding. 
 
In the last five years, three floods have occurred in parts of eastern Uganda, including Teso and Butaleja, according to Opolot.
 
He also points out that floods are followed by droughts. This, Deus Bamanya, a principal meteorologist, says is due to El Nino and La nina conditions that have been influencing rainfall conditions in the region. Unlike strong El Nino that caused massive flooding across the country, this year’s El Nino has been weak. He says the current rains extend into the coming year. 
 
El Nino, a phenomenon which is characterised by heavy rains associated with devastating impacts, is becoming frequent because of changing climatic conditions. This is usually followed by La Nina associated with dry spells. This, Bamanya, says is why floods are following droughts.  
 
Floods linked to troubled Mountain Elgon
 
Dr. Tom Okurut, the executive director of the National Environment Management Authority, says the destruction of trees, which act as natural barriers against running water from the villages on Mt. Elgon, has led to increased flooding and siltation in the plains. 
 
Okurut says wetlands, rivers, dams and lakes, which used to act as reservoirs have become heavily silted. So, the water runs from the mountains to the low lying areas where there is no space and once it encounters barriers, flooding takes place.
 
He cites de-silting or dredging of the water bodies such as rivers, lakes, dams and wetlands as part of the solution to flooding. In addition to this, tree planting on the mountains should be encouraged and the natural vegetation should be left intact. 
 
Okurut recommends a change in economic activities pointing out planting of oranges, fish farming and cattle rearing in order to diversify sources of livelihoods. He says with diversification, it will be difficult for disaster to hit at all enterprises. 
 
“Agriculture officials should advise people in the plains not to plant root crops like cassava because flooding leads to rooting of the tubers,” Okurut said.
 
Districts crippled by funding
 
The common saying, “Who pays the piper determines the tune of the song” is repeated when the relationship between the local and central government is considered. Opolot points out that the funding at the districts manifests what the central government wants done in the district. 
 
“We get conditional grants and not even environment management or disaster management is considered,” says Opolot, adding that issues of climate change are not considered in the budget leaving the victim at the mercy of disasters and NGOs. 
 
He also says district disaster management committees that had been formed to assess the risk and manage the response to the risk are no more. 
 
Opolot recommends that people vacate low lying areas, but adds that population pressure has made it difficult for them to leave such areas. 
 
 

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});