5,000 displaced as Lake Victoria water levels rise again in Masaka

Mr John Bosco Lubyayi, the deputy resident district commissioner for Masaka District, said several homes and shops have been submerged in the last three days.

“We urge all affected residents to relocate to safer places where they will get relief assistance from Red Cross and other agencies,” he said yesterday.

The floods have cut off all routes connecting to various landing sites in Bukakkata ,Kyesiiga and Bukakkata, paralysing transportation of goods.

“We are now using boats to move from one place to another,” Mr Simon Ssekyewa  said at the weekend.

He said residents currently pay between Shs1,000 to Shs2,000 for a single trip to connect to neighbouring villages on a boat.

Ms Sylvia Nakintu, who operates a restaurant at the Namirembe Landing Site, urged the government to find a lasting solution to floods.

The Masaka District Chairperson, Mr Andrew Lukyamuzi, attributed the rising water levels to intensity of the rainfall in the past two months.

He said the district authorities cannot assist the residents to relocate due to financial constraints.

Census hurdles
Some enumerators currently conducting the national census said they have failed to locate the affected residents because many have not yet settled in one place.

“They are on the move and when we go to the area where we expect them to have relocated, they are not there,” Mr Vincent Lukyamuzi, the Masaka District planner, who doubles as the district census officer, said. 

“There are 337 places for enumeration and in some areas like landing sites where many people have been displaced. So, we have decided to support all enumerators to ensure all those residents in the hard-to-reach areas are enumerated,” he said.

He said enumerators deployed in the flood-hit areas would be paid extra in allowances and provided items like gumboots

Environmentalists say the floods point to climate change occasioned by global warming due to man’s relentless war destruction of nature.