Plant bamboo to control mudslides

Sep 06, 2011

RAIN is supposed to be a blessing from the gods. So when people start dreading the next downpour, you know something has gone drastically awry. People in different parts of the country are still trying to come to terms with the losses and suffering the current rains have brought into their lives.

RAIN is supposed to be a blessing from the gods. So when people start dreading the next downpour, you know something has gone drastically awry. People in different parts of the country are still trying to come to terms with the losses and suffering the current rains have brought into their lives.

Lives and property have been lost in the lightning strikes, mud slides, floods and wind storms that characterise the current rains. Instead of making the most of the rains, farmers in many parts of the country are busy recovering bodies of colleagues buried by mud slides or grieving over the loss of crops and livestock washed away by floods.

Rain is supposed to be life-giving but when it turns murderous, farmers have to find out which gods are angry and how to appease them. We do not have to look far beyond the forests. According to several reports, the murderous rains are a direct result of the wanton destruction of forests that has been taking place in this country for some time.

The upper slopes of Mountain Elgon were once covered with a natural carpet of bamboo vegetation. With its dense network of roots, the bamboo helped retain the soils on the steep mountain slopes. But due to population pressure, the bamboo forests were cleared leaving the mountain slopes exposed. That is when the mud slides and floods got out of hand.

In western Uganda, it is the rain storms wreaking havoc. Since the current rains started, strong winds have destroyed several banana plantations, causing food shortage in an area that is supposed to be the country’s food basket. Again loss of tree cover has been blamed for the destructive rain storms.

There are no trees to act as wind breaks, so the winds sweep through the exposed area unchecked, leaving destruction in their wake. The only way to tame these destructive rains is to plant trees.

The people in Bulambuli should start planting bamboo as a live fence around their plots of land.

The bamboo will protect them from mud slides, while providing them with an endless supply of malewa (edible bamboo shoots) which is a delicacy in the area. Planting trees is also what will tame the rain storms in western Uganda. It will work.

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