Bad roads hamper relief delivery to landslide victims

Mbale-The poor state of roads has hampered the delivery of relief food to landslide survivors in Zesui and Masaba sub-counties in Sironko District.

The disaster situation report issued by the chief administrative officer, Mr Moses Bukenya Seguya, indicates that the leaders are finding it hard to deliver relief to landslide victims in the camps.

“The rains and floods have destroyed bridges, cutting off roads’ connectivity, especially in the areas where the landslides occurred,” the report reads in part.

“We need to have temporary bridges to facilitate movement as we look forward to fixing new ones. We need to rehabilitate the destroyed water sources,” Mr Bukenya added.

According to the report, there are three camps; Bugimagu Primary School with 539 people; Bumumulo Primary School with 322 people and Nazalazala Primary School with 400.

The district chairperson, Mr Robert Mulekwa, also told MPs on the Presidential Affairs committee, who visited the area last week, about the challenges faced by the displaced people.

“We have a big challenge of accessing the affected areas. The roads are in very bad condition and it has delayed the delivery because trucks carrying the food items easily get stuck in the mud,” Mr Mulekwa said.

Mr John Gimboi, the Nazalazala camp leader, said government should airlift the relief items to the victims.

Mr Gimboi said they are in urgent need of mattresses, mosquito nets, bedsheets and other household items. Mr George Ssonko, the Uganda National Roads Authority manager for Mbale station, said they will soon work on the affected bridges.

Mr John Bosco Seguya, the chairperson of Parliament’s Presidential Affairs committee, said government will evacuate people from the areas at risk of landslides and resettle them somewhere else.

“We don’t want to continue losing our people every day,” he said.
At the weekend, landslide victims had embarked on rehabilitating feeder roads leading to the camps using hand hoes. One of the roads they worked on is Buweri – Bumumulo.

Mr Patrick Mafabi, the chairperson of Bugimagu camp, said that they mobilised themselves to rehabilitate the road so that they able to get relief from government and non-government organisations.
On December 3, landslides hit the sub-counties of Zesui and Masaba, killing a number of people and displacing hundreds. Four bodies have since been recovered.

The landslides were triggered by heavy rain, which has been pounding Bugisu Sub-region and other parts of the country.

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