Nakasongola district which is prone to floods has allocated only five million shillings in the 2022-23 Financial Year to fight disasters as rains start. This is a 37.5 percent cut from the eight million shillings disasters were allocated in FY 2021-22.
According to Nakasongola District Hazard and Vulnerability profile, the Sub-counties which are prone to floods are Kalungi and Lwampanga which are close to Lake Kyoga. Others are Nakitoma sub-county which is close to River Kafu and Lugogo among others. The areas were affected by rising water levels at Lake Kyoga in 2020 leaving over 8,000 people displaced to date.
Moone, Muwunami, Kisenyi, Lwampanga and Kibuye landing sites were among the main hotspots for floods in 2020.
Sam Kigula, the LC 5 Chairperson of Nakasongola says that the district has since formed a Disaster Management Committee headed by David Nsamba as part of plans to respond to floods in case they re-occur.
Kigula adds that the district has also been able to budget for only five million shillings in the financial year 2022/23 which is below eight million shillings in 2021/22.
Kigula says that the funds will be used mainly by the committee to carry out assessments in case of floods occur and report to Office of the Prime Minister for support.
Kigula adds that although they prefer a bigger budget for disaster management, the local revenue envelope is still too small to enable them to allocate more funds for the response.
Kigula criticized the Office of the Prime Minister for allegedly failing to decentralize management of disasters to districts affected by floods and other calamities.
Nakasongola district expects to collect one billion shillings in local revenue out of the 29 billion shillings budget for 2022/23.
Bruno Ssengombe the LC 3 Chairperson of Lwampanga town council says that already there are signs that the water may rise again at Lake Kyoga but as the local council, they have no resources to respond or relocate victims.
“What we have done is warn residents not to settle in areas which may be submerged by the waters but some have returned there despite of 2020 floods,” Ssengombe said.
Godfrey Lutalo, the LC 3 Chairperson of Nakitoma sub-county says that residents along River Kafu and Lugogo were warned to stay 100 meters away so that they are not affected in case there is an overflow.
“We don’t have any settlements along the recommended buffer but only crop fields which may be submerged if there is an overflow,” Lutalo said.
Last week, the Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Hillary Onek said that the Office of the Prime Minister is planning to establish 5 regional centers to manage disasters. These will cost a total of 899.4 billion Shillings.
Onek said that the regional centers will enable the government to quickly respond to disasters in different areas and also help prepare the population to respond to risks.
