Over 4,000 evacuated from island over floods
Flooded. A man carries a crate from a kiosk at Mulungo Beach in Munyonyo which was cut off by the rising water levels of Lake Victoria. PHOTO BY JOSEPH KIGGUNDU.
What you need to know:
- A journalist in Mayuge told Daily Monitor that over the weekend, the UPDF Marine and local leaders evacuated about 250 people to different areas in Mayuge. She says the UPDF, however, stopped evacuating people because most people were resisting the evacuation.
- Daily Monitor could not verify the claims from the UPDF Marine since repeated calls to the spokesperson went unanswered.
More than 3,800 people on Masolya Island in Mayuge District are being evacuated as Lake Victoria water levels continue to rise due to heavy rain since February.
The district leadership last Friday gave families 48 hours to leave the island.
Mr Emmie Mitala, the deputy Resident District Commissioner Muyuge, says the situation was worsening.
“The part which we thought is raised and still safe has water oozing out of stones. It has started breaking and falling in,” he said.
Mr Mitala adds: “The water has drowned about 70 to 80 per cent of the homesteads and spared the ones which were on the raised grounds.
“The raised ground is where we have the health centre III and the school. But even on the raised ground, we had a problem. The water had dug down around the Island and it was risky to have people stay on the Island.”
It is now one week since the order was issued and not all people have left.
“We told them to relocate to Sagitu or any other Island. We gave them relief food and blankets that came from the Office of the Prime Minister, as well as tents and a few mosquito nets especially for the pregnant mothers,” Mr Mitala explains.
A journalist in Mayuge told Daily Monitor that over the weekend, the UPDF Marine and local leaders evacuated about 250 people to different areas in Mayuge. She says the UPDF, however, stopped evacuating people because most people were resisting the evacuation.
Daily Monitor could not verify the claims from the UPDF Marine since repeated calls to the spokesperson went unanswered.
The deputy RDC says the refusal of people to leave was instigated by the LC1 of the area who did not want to lose the people under his leadership.
“The LC1 is a hypocrite because he had moved his family. He collected money from people and came to my office saying people will not shift but insisted that they should move.
“His problem was that he knows once they shift, he will not be chairman in the area where they move to. I had to sit him down with the leadership of Sagitu so that he can work as a subordinate to the new community leaders where they are shifting to.”
Mr William Omony, a senior meteorologist at Uganda National Meteorological Authority, says Uganda will continue to receive more rain until mid-June.
He adds that the water levels at Lake Victoria continue to increase due to abnormal rainfall patterns.
“The dry season from mid June to August will not reduce the water levels much. If the rain from August to November will be as much, then that means the levels will continue to rise till the end of the year. We might go beyond the historical highest level of 13,” explains Mr Omony.
Lake Victoria water levels in Lake Victoria have risen to 13.21 metres; this being the second-highest level since May 1964, when the lake went up to 13.41 metres.
An estimated 500 acre piece of land has been allocated for the people relocating from Masolya. So far, each homestead that joins the new fishing community of Sagitu Island pays Shs3,000 as development fee since they do not have enough toilet facilities.
The community had equally been affected by the Covid-19 restrictions on social distancing but due to the nature of the emergency, the leaders allowed them to use their own boats to escape looming danger.
“We relaxed on the directives a bit because it was an emergency, a disaster. We did not restrict them on the number of people sitting in a boat so that they evacuate quickly. As government, we did not have boats to use.
They were using their own. What I like is that even those who did not have, were assisted by those who had. I know by tomorrow, (Thursday) the exercise of shifting everybody will be complete.” says Mr Mitala.
He says more people are returning to pick some of their belonging. The other Islands that could also be affected are Jaguzi, Kaaza, among others.
Masolya had a Health Centre 3 and Sagitu has HealthCentre 2. To make healthcare service delivery effective, leaders are planning to relocate medical teams and equipment from Masolya to work in Sagitu as a Health Centre 3.
Mr. William Omony, a senior meteorologist at Uganda National Meteorological Authority says Uganda will continue to receive more rain till mid-June.
He adds that the water levels at Lake Victoria continues to increase due to abnormal rainfall patterns.
“Recently, we released that water levels continue to rise because of the heavy rainfall of last year. The rain that started in May went on seriously till November last year. There was a spill of the rain in January.
We did not have a distinct dry season. Areas like Kenya, Burundi. Tanzania and from Uganda, the lakes all that feed into Lake Victoria continued to bring water at high speeds. The dry season from Mid-June to August will not reduce the water levels much.
If the rains from August to November will be as much, then that means the levels will continue to rise till the end of the year. We might go beyond the historical highest level of 13.” Explains Mr. Omony.
Lake Vitoria water levels started increasing with torrential rains in February, 2020 and has reached dangerous levels of 13.21. The highest unsafe water level the lake has ever risen is 13.41 in 1964.
EVACUATION
Desperate. The community had equally been affected by the Covid-19 restrictions on social distancing but due to the nature of the emergency, the leaders allowed to break the rules.
“We did not restrict them on the number of people sitting in a boat so that they evacuate quickly,” Mr Mitala said.
