We knew mudslides would happen in Bududa, why didn''t we prepare?

By Musa Ecweru

One of Uganda’s dailies on Thursday, August 15, 2013, ran an article entitled: We knew mudslides would happen in Bududa, why didn’t we prepare?

It is unfortunate that in Uganda, even visitors can get a chance to comment on critical issues concerning this country, over which they have not done enough research and have not consulted authorities to get facts about the subject.

In the article referred to above, it is indicated that there is lack of preparedness and perhaps the will is not there from the Government to do that. This is a very wrong perception and it is misleading.

Indeed the National Policy for Disaster Preparedness and Management was developed by Office of the Prime Minister and approved by Cabinet in 2011. I do not need to over emphasise the good ideas there in, but they were put together by the Government with the will to have the policy implemented and to improve resilience as well as preparedness against disasters.

The policy is being implemented and since disasters cut across sectors, different line ministries are implementing the policy according to their respective mandates.

It is recalled that on March 1, 2010, landslides hit Bududa District, killing over 150 people and displacing 8,000.  In October 2010, relocation of the displaced to safer areas was done and they were taken to Kiryandongo after de-gazetting part of the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement.

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The nature of houses in Bududa that are easily blown by hailstorm

They were given 2.5 acres, one acre of land was cleared for them to grow food, they were fed for one year, a health unit was established and Government embarked on constructing them permanent houses. In total, 603 households were taken to Kiryandongo and 100 houses will be constructed each Financial Year.

The Government had three alternative Government land where the Bududa landslides survivors could have been resettled and a technical committee comprising of line ministries was formed. It went and verified the three alternatives and recommendations were that Kiryandongo was the best alternative of the three mainly because services like water points, schools, health centres, roads, etc. were already available in Kiryandongo, having been a refugee settlement.

Kiryandongo is part of Bunyoro sub-region and all these areas are known to be very fertile. The refugees we have been resettling there have always attained self-reliance a few years of being hosted there. This is what has led to development of the Bweyale town. 

Additionally, if a few of the resettled people have gone back for some reasons, I do not want to dwell into, it is wrong to think and to assume that majority have gone back. I am available to anyone wishing to go to Kiryandongo to confirm this. Resettled people are there and they are progressing.

Focusing on the recent landslides in Bududa, I need to clarify some issues here. This was not a landlside like the ones experienced before. This was a combination of a hailstorm and hailstones that destroyed houses and killed a four year old boy and not the landslides.

Equally a weak house that was de-roofed in Bumayoka sub-county

Where the landslides occurred, there was no settlement and the destruction caused was on crops. All this happened on Saturday, August 10, 2013 and on Sunday, August 11, 2013. Officers from the Department of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Management were on the scene to assess the situation and inform response.

On Monday, August 12, 2013, the assessment report was received clearly indicating numbers and location of the affected communities.

By Tuesday, August 13, 2013, food was already in Bududa for distribution to the displaced communities. In all the emergencies and as guided by the Policy and Act of Parliament that establishes Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS)as an auxiliary to Government in such matters, we have been working together. At a coordination meeting that took place in Bududa, chaired by the Chief Administrative Officer, it was agreed that OPM provides food and tents, as other partners cater for non-food relief items. 

100 tents had already been prepositioned in Bududa by OPM and it was readily available for temporary shelter. The rest of the players i.e. URC, World Vision, etc. have brought in non-food items/ house hold items like blankets, mosquito nets, jerricans, etc. and URCS has been tasked to handle their distribution.

A few delays in distribution came about because of exaggeration in figures of the affected households by district leadership. The Government had to ensure that the right numbers of the households affected are obtained, get to know where exactly they are and their nature of needs. Reports have been indicating effects to thousands of people, but the reality was obtained after the assessment.

Where the landslides occurred, there were no houses and people were not settling there.  The child who died did not die as a result of landslides, but it is because the mother learnt of the destruction the rains had caused to her shop that was a distance away. She left the boy behind and went in the rains to save her property in the shop.

On return, she could not trace her child. It is likely that the child tried to follow her and fell into a manhole near their home, under which hailstones covered him, causing his death.

After the assessment, it was established that 117 households were most affected by strong winds and hailstones in Bushiyi sub-country, and 62 in Bumayoka. Of the 117 in Bushiyi, 21 households lost their houses completely, while the rest i.e. the 96 households happen to live in very risky hills and have been advised to move down the hills immediately. The destruction to the few houses above, however, is not surprising, given that they were very weak and semi-permanent.

This phenomenon strengthens the relationship we have observe d between disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and poverty reduction. Strong houses would have stood the weather vagaries and we, therefore, need to carefully and harmoniously address the three, i.e. climate change, disasters and poverty.

Other than the above kind of preparedness, the Government has been looking at a lasting solution to this problem. On June 27, 2013, after the second landslides that occurred in Bududa on June 25, 2012, a Sub-committee of Cabinet on emergencies and disasters, comprising of line ministers was established to address disasters and to stop death of people from such occurrences, especially landslides.

Hon. Wakikona (right), consoling the mother of Wandeba John, a four-year child who died after drowning in a soak pit which was covered by hailstones in Matuwa Parish, Bushiyi sub-county

The Sub-committee is chaired by the Second Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. Moses Ali and among the membership includes; the Minister for Works and Transport, Minister for Health, Minister for Education and Sports, Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Management and his Deputy, Minister for Water and Environment, Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries and Minister for Local Government.

The aim of having such a multi-sectoral committee was to holistically address the challenges in the Elgon Region in the face of climate change and challenges that have with the phenomenon.

In July 2012, the Sub-committee had its very first meeting and they all agreed to travel to the entire Elgon region for a fact finding mission, but also to consult with the district officials as well as affected communities on what needs to be done to address the challenge of landslides and floods in this region. You will note that while the communities settling on the slopes of Mt. Elgon are experiencing landslides, some of those in the low lying areas are often affected by floods. 

In that very month of June 2013, the sub-committee, led by the Rt. Hon. Moses Ali visited and consulted with all the seven districts within the Elgon, right from Bududa to Bukwo in Sebei. During the consultations, three alternatives of resettlement were proposed, that is to say, urbanisation, which meant getting people from the mountains and settling them in the urban centres.

This meant upgrading them, providing them with all the necessary services, constructing housing estates going upwards due to limited space in most of these districts, devise alternative means of survival for the resettled communities, etc. this alternative is extremely expensive to achieve in it all the affected districts within the Elgon region and in the shortest period possible, because landslides cannot wait.

The second option was to secure land within the Elgon region and resettle the people there. The third was to buy land from other parts of the country and use it for such resettlement. Officials consulted in the affected districts were very much in favour of the first two options, although the first option is still far from our reach.

On return, a report was put together on the findings and recommendations. It is on this basis that a costed resettlement plan was developed, covering immediate, medium and long term interventions. Both documents were tabled before Cabinet, which approved the temporally resettlement of communities at high risk of landslides as a matter of urgency and then their eventual permanent resettlement after Government had identified and secured land for the purpose. 

After Cabinet approval, sub missions were made to the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and this Financial Year, sh8b has been allocated to procure land for resettlement of communities at high risk of landslides and floods within the Elgon Region. It is known that Bududa is the most affected and it is the priority district in this intervention.

However, landslides are prevalent in Manafwa, Sironko, Bulambuli and Kapchorwa and will be considered as well. The process of buying this land has started and a multi-sectoral committee has already been put into place to undertake this assignment. Sh2.6b has been released this very quarter to be used on procurement of land.

I want to assure Ugandans that the Government is doing everything possible to be better prepared given the increasing disasters in frequency and intensity in the country. Other than the above, a lot of other things have been done in the direction of preparedness, i.e. hazard and vulnerability mapping, establishment of a National Emergency Coordination and Operations Centre to improve surveillance, prediction, real time information, early warning and timely response to emergencies, among others.

Mapping and registration of communities at high risk of landslides and floods within the Elgon region was done and it is only procurement of land that we have been waiting for.

While we remain open for advice and objective criticism, we will be happy if it is well researched and factual because my considered view is that the article in reference lacks the above facts.

However, as our people suffer from all this, we need to work together objectively and put politics aside, to avoid misleading the populace.

For God and my country

The writer is the minister of State for relief, disaster preparedness and refugee