Prime
Find lasting solution for Kasese flooding
People on the street after flood waters entered their home in Kisanga Cell, Nyamwamba Division on the night of May 22, 2024.
What you need to know:
- The issue: Kasese floods.
- Our view: Since flooding in Kasese is now a periodical occurrence, government should put in a place an agency charged with cleaning and unblocking the rivers periodically.
This week, residents of Kasese Town had sleepless nights after rivers Nyamwamba, Nyamughasana and Mubuku burst their banks and flooded people’s homes.
The floods, on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, caught locals off-guard. The puzzled residents described the waters coming down the Rwenzori Mountains as “with a lot of pressure and speed, without any rain”.
Mr Arnold Thembo Marule, the bursar at Rwenzori College of Commerce, said: “This is unprecedented. It is not common that we experience floods when it is actually shining. I am wondering where the waters have come from, but we are doing everything possible to contain the water.”
The Kasese Town residents who were interviewed by this publication spoke in fear, with flooding now becoming a part of their lives whenever it rains.
Previous flooding disasters in Kasese have claimed several lives and properties worth billions of shillings, including the famous Kilembe Mines Hospital.
Government’s response to the disasters have always been wanting and nothing seems have been learnt from the previous tragedies.
A tough-talking Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, in July 2021 promised a comprehensive solution to the Kasese floods. After meeting several government officials following another disaster, Ms Nabbanja directed the ministers and their technocrats to head to Kasese and meet with local leaders to come up with a lasting solution.
The comprehensive report that Prime Minister Nabbanja asked for has not been made public. In the meantime, those living in the river basins in Kasese continue living in fear.
It is our appeal, therefore, that government finds a lasting solution to the Kasese floods. And find the solution fast.
To begin with, the report that Ms Nabbanja sought from the inter-ministerial committee in July 2021 should be made public.
Then local leaders have always complained of being sidelined whenever government tries to come up with interventions. We appeal to government to involve everyone, including asking for help from countries that have expertise in managing destructive floods.
And as we have always appealed, response to emergency situations such as the one in Kasese should be timely. Government needs to have a budget set aside for these increasing disasters. We do not need to see haphazard responses that result in procurement of poor-quality relief items.
Since flooding in Kasese is now a periodical occurrence, government should put in a place an agency charged with cleaning and unblocking the rivers periodically. Local leaders are not satisfied with the current desilting process.
Finally, government should invest in well-constructed gabions that will permanently prevent the running water from finding its way into people’s homes.
