___________

KAMPALA - Parliament has approved the transfer of the functions of the Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UNMA) to the Ministry of Water and Environment.

During the plenary on Wednesday, Parliament went ahead and okayed the transfer despite explanations from Parliament’s Committee on Environment to have the Authority remain semi-autonomous due to its specialised services.

Emmanuel Otaala, Chairperson of the committee said that although the transfer is intended to facilitate efficient and effective service, there was no evidence provided to the Committee on the duplicity of the functions between UNMA and the Department of Meteorology.

The committee adds that UNMA’s roles are specialised and specific and not duplicated as the Ministry, adding that it was important to retain UNMA as an autonomous institution while the Ministry focuses on the development of policies.

Uganda National Meteorological Authority (formerly Department of Meteorology) under the Ministry of Water and Environment became a semi-autonomous government institution for weather and climate services in 2012 (UNMA Act. 2012) and it is the focal institution of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international body of experts mandated to analyse scientific research findings on climate change.

In Uganda the authority is mostly known through its continuous weather productions and forecasts of seasonal rainfall.