Govt deploys regional disaster officers

By Francis Emorut

The Government has deployed regional risk disaster officers in all disaster prone areas in the country to handle those affected by floods that have ravaged the country, Musa Ecweru, the state minister of refugees and disaster preparedness, has said.

“We are getting bad floods, landslides, storms and frequent lightning bolts. Therefore, there is need to have disasters officers in these areas in case a disaster strikes,” Ecweru told World Bank representatives, disaster specialists, MPs resident district commissioners and disaster management officers.

Floods have killed people in Kasese, displaced thousands and destroyed property in the same area. He said in Acholi-Lango sub-region the officers will be based in Gulu, while in Teso region, the officers will be stationed at Mbale and for Karamoja, in Moroto.

In western Uganda, the disaster officers will be stationed in Fort Portal and Mbarara, while in the central region, the officers are based at Masaka.

The minister also said that Government is setting up disaster risk reduction centres in all of the 112 districts.

Ecweru made the remarks during the opening of an international workshop on learning from mega disasters and implementing lessons learnt in Uganda at Lake Victoria Serena Hotel last week.

Ecweru called for the training of district leaders in disaster-related issues.

“It extremely critical to train district leaders in disaster risk reduction so as to form disaster committees in the districts,” Ecweru said.

The World Bank disaster risk management specialist, Francis Muraya, said Uganda is prone to a number of natural and and human-induced disasters that impact on human lives by causing death, destruction of infrastructure, property, livelihoods and setting back socio-economic development.

Muraya outlined the major causes of disasters in Uganda as droughts, floods, land/mudslides, prolonged dry spells, lightning, human and livestock diseases and epidemics, fires and terrorism.

Others are road and traffic accidents, climate change, increasing weather variability, environmental degradation, population growth, poverty, weak institutional capacities, inadequate information on risks and climate.

He said all these are the driving factors of increased vulnerability of the people and livelihoods of Uganda towards disaster.

Alex Byarugaba, the chairperson of the disaster parliamentary platform, called for the training of lawmakers in disaster management since they legislate and appropriate the budget. Byarugaba appealed to the Government to put in place early warning systems.

“Uganda’s warning system is so poor that we sometimes depend on Nairobi,” he said.