Legislators task OPM on disaster preparedness Bill

A section of Members of Parliament, especially those hailing from areas that are prone to disasters, Wednesday tasked officials from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to speed up the process of mooting the Disaster Risk Management Bill before things go out of hand.

Speaking at the consultative meeting on the ongoing formulation of the said Bill, between the OPM, Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) and civil society organisations in Kampala on February 28, the legislators said some government officials have made disasters a business.

“In my area, they wait for landslides to happen and then you see them rushing in offices to formulate budgets in the name of relief, but why would you be doing the same thing every year, this law was needed yesterday,” Mr John Musila, Bubulo East MP in Namisindwa District said.

Mr Yovan Adriko, the Vurra County legislator in the Arua said their constituents are always on their neck whenever there is any disaster problem yet the OPM who are supposed to respond swiftly, take a long to reach on ground.

“For us hosting a lot of refugees who are destroying our environment and yet there is no tree planting, we anticipate a dangerous drought up there unless something has been done,” he said.

All legislators who attended the meeting unanimously tasked the OPM to speed up the process of drafting this law to enable its quicker enactment.

The Bill

According to the framers, the Bill once enacted will among others address issues of averting disaster as well as quick response by putting all required mechanisms in place.

Speaking at the meeting, Tororo Woman MP and a member of the Parliamentary forum on disaster risk reduction, Ms Sarah Opendi said whereas in 2011 the disaster risk management policy was passed, it hasn’t helped anything.

Uganda Red Cross Society legal advisor, Mr Alex Luganda, said the law is urgent because there have been numerous emergencies occurring, reacted to by uncoordinated responses which is partly due to the absence of a law.

“Uganda is a permanent host to emergencies and disasters. Every rainy season we know River Nyamwamba in Kasese is going to burst its banks and landslides are going to wash away houses in Bududa but what have we done to mitigate and prevent this state of affairs? We are in a situation where the would-be helpers cry more than the victims because of a lack of preparation. The essence of the law is to help consolidate preparation, early response, coordination and funding among other issues,” he said.

Alex Byaruhanga, a senior legal officer from OPM said: “We are currently at the cabinet stage but there is steady progress in other stages. We started the journey with a policy which was passed by the cabinet and is being implemented. We have concluded the regulatory assessment and approved it. We engaged the Ministry of Finance which issued a certificate of financial implication which is a clearance that enabled us to go to cabinet.”