Over 1,000 Ugandans killed in disasters in 2023

Between January and November 2023, Uganda witnessed a heart-wrenching toll with 1,066 lives lost, underscoring the devastating consequences of natural and man-made calamities, government has said.
 
The report by department of relief, disaster preparedness and management in the East African nation’s Office of the Prime Minister presented at a clean air Africa stakeholder engagement meeting on household air pollution and health, convened by the Makerere Lung Institute in Kampala Wednesday, revealed that the country registered at least 1,088 disaster event cases, with accidents taking a lion’s share of about 51.1 percent, fires taking 22.9 percent, drowning at 9.6 percent, arson at 3.2 percent, electrocution at 3.1 percent, cattle rustling cases at 2.6 percent and others at 7.0 percent.
 
About 69.3 percent of the 1,066 people who died was a as result of accidents, at least 14.3 percent drowned while 3.7 percent were killed during cattle rustling. At least 3.5 percent were attributed to electrocution as fire contributed by 2.3 percent, and others contributed 6.9 percent.

The first national risk and vulnerability atlas, 2021 launched by the then Prime Minister, Mr Ruhakana Rugunda showed disaster hotspots in Uganda.
The most at the risk facilities were the general population, health centers, schools, residential areas, roads, warehouses and water supply systems.
According to the findings, Karamoja and Teso sub-regions, West Nile and the cattle corridor areas are most drought-affected areas while floods are dominant in regions of Elgon, Bukedi, Rwenzori, Teso, Karamoja, Buliisa, Nakasongola, Acholi and West Nile areas.

The hotspots for lightening are the districts of; Bushenyi, Mitooma, Rukungiri, Kanungu, Busia, Namutumba, Bukwo, Kalangala, Buvuma, Adjumani, Nwoya, Amuru and Lamwo.  Earthquake occurrence is more likely to happen in the western arm of the Rift Valley, Kagera area and around Lake Victoria basin. Relatedly, hailstorm is common in Elgon, Bukedi, Central and Western areas while windstorms are common in Bukedi, Teso, Ankole, Bunyoro, Rwenzori and South Western Uganda.

Numerous experts at the Makerere University Lung Institute event were more concerned about women and children who reportedly bear the brunt of such disasters.
 
Ms Rebecca Nantanda, a pediatrician at the Mulago-based lung institute, spelt out the different health risks of household Air Pollution on health.
For pregnant women and unborn babies, she said:”It causes “low birth weight, premature births, bleeding and poor lung function.”   
According to her, it increases risks of lung diseases like pneumonia, asthma, lung cancer among others.
 
According to Mr Dan Pope from the CLEAN-Air (Africa) Unit, often times, people overlook burns from household fires yet children remain most affected. He stressed the need to improve health facilities to accommodate such challenges.

Data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development presented at the same event shows that less than 6 percent Ugandans have access to clean cooking. 
Some of the barriers were outlined as lack of access to finance, high upfront costs of clean cooking technologies, low awareness regarding clean cooking energies among others.
 
Mr Simon Opio Acuti, the Kole North Member of Parliament on the other hand decried the high cost of treating lung disease caused by HAP as well as that of electricity. 
He emphasized the need to reduce the cost of connecting to the national grid. Like many, he also highlighted the need for awareness on the subject matter.  

“We need to look at how to address energy poverty. The biggest challenge on household pollution is that many of the people using fire wood cannot afford or access clean energy such as gas and biogas itself. So the step is we need to scale down the cost of electricity connection,” he said.