Felix Basiime
& Enid Ninsiima
Kasese
(http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1178412/-/c0srd0z/-/index.html)
Ms Hawa Kamalha, a mother of 3 lives in Kilembe quarters village at the footsteps of Mount Rwenzori in Kasese district. She has been there for good years.
But on a bright day on May 6, 2011 night fell without any signs of rain, she went to bed as usual and deep in the night she felt her blanket wet, she first thought that maybe she had wetted her bed, she woke up.
“At about 3am, I felt water in my bed and when I touched the blanket, it was totally soaked. Then I woke up to see a flooded bedroom” she said.
Kamalha quickly woke up her children and rushed out before water submerged her house up to the window level.
By morning, she was among hundreds of residents displaced by floods that destroyed property worth unspecified millions of money.
The heavy down pour made run offs from the slopes of Mount Rwenzori and the surrounding hills to the lower lands.
Advised to relocate
The Executive Director Foundation for Urban and Rural Advancement (FURA), Mr Reuben Mbauta warned of more floods and advised people in the prone areas to relocate.
“We have advised the residents in the affected areas to vacate because more rains are coming and the problem may grow worse” he says.
Kilembe Quarters residential area, Nyakasanga, Kikonzo, Kidodo, Kizungu, Railway village and Hima town council are some of the areas that experience heavy floods every rainy season.
However, environmentalists have always warned authorities in Kasese over poor methods of agriculture on the slopes of Mount Rwenzori and hills around the district that have affected the natural checks for runoff water.
Political interference
The Kasese Municipal Engineer, Mr Apollo Bamwine attributes the problem to political interference in the planning of the town. He says that politicians in the area interfere in the process of offering tenders for construction works in the municipality.
“People have also been encouraged and supported by politicians to build in areas that are planned to be drainage channels and when you talk as a technical person they shut you down”, Bamwine argues.
But the Kasese Town Clerk, Mr Wilson Musabe says there is a blocked drainage channel which the people had forcefully built on top of.
“The problem is the 1998 Land Act which gives the citizens excessive powers over ownership of land in the country. This Act has encouraged people to just grab land even pieces of land that had been set aside for government projects”, Musabe reasons.
Musabe thinks the problem of drainage in the town can be stemmed at a cost of over Sh. 5 billion.
Poor urban planning
Most leaders in the district and the Uganda national roads authority (UNRA) have attributed the problem of floods in Kasese to poor urban technical planning.
Kasese district chairman, retired Lt. Col Mawa Muhindo says, “The Kasese municipal technical planning team is responsible for the current disaster in the town”
The UNRA Kasese station engineer, Mr. John Kennedy Kasawuli reasons that the blocking of the roads by floods and heavy rains is due to poor designing during the road reconstruction 4 years ago by M/s Solene Bien International, a roads construction company.
He says, “There is need to redesign the roads and it will take time to solve since it will be done during the major reconstruction of the highway (Kasese-Fort Portal) of which it needs a lot of technicalities”.
The 305 infant brigade commander, Lt. Col Edison Muhanguzi who led a team of soldiers who re-opened the roads in the district that were blocked by sand that was carried along with floods from the hills around also blames the Kasese municipal council authorities of poor planning.
He says “There is allocation of plots to individual developers on water drainage channels which has tempered with nature”.
But Mr Bahati Binobino, the LC II chairman for one of the affected areas, Kamaiba ward, central division thinks that the construction of a water reservoir in the area would soak some water before it seals off the roads and people’s premises.
Environmental degradation
When travelling on Katunguru-Kasese-Fort Portal road, it is very evident that the flora on the slopes of mountains and hills on both sides of the road has been severely tampered with therefore the natural checks to the runoff water have been reduced.
Most rivers that emanate from Mount Rwenzori like River Nyamwamba have been bursting even during dry seasons and water spills into the residential areas due to the sand excavation on the river banks and due to the effects of climate change where the snow deposits on top of Mount Rwenzori have been melting down due to global warming.
Floods have not only hit the urban Kasese, but also the rural areas down in Katwe-Kabatooro in Busongora South.
According to Mr Nicholas Arinaitwe Kagongo, an environmentalist at the Lake Katwe Salt Tourism and Information Centre in Kasese district, floods have hit the salty Lake Katwe since 2010 and dissolved the salt in more than 8,000 salt pans.
He says Lake Katwe may become barren just like other salt lakes in the district did if the current climate changes are anything to go by.
He also attributes the flooding to the degradation by overgrazing of animals and residents who cut the vegetation surrounding the lake.
He says, “The grass and other shrubs control the rain water runoff but have reduced gradually”.
The western region focal person and public awareness officer for NEMA, Mr Jeconious Musingwiire reasoned, “Kasese will be hit by floods for some time because the green cover has faded on the hills which leads to surface run offs, poor tilling of land, river banks have been cultivated so the rivers burst when it rains or when there is an overflow from the snowcapped mountain.”
The Kasese district Environmental officer, Mr Augustine Kooli reasons that the hills around the municipality have been built on which also creates more water run offs.
“There are increased developments in the town of late and the hills are being built on like the Late Kazini’s hotel (Kepp Resort Hotel), on Kilembe road, so water accumulates because of loss of tree cover”.
Impact of floods
Climate change has already threatened Lake Katwe and the lives of over 8,000 residents who engage in salt extraction for a living. The lake floods since last year forcing people to seek for alternative jobs. Traders around East and central Africa have for many years flocked Katwe to load about 8-10 Lorries of salt daily but that bee hive activity is no longer there.
“Mining at the salty lake is at a low scale because when it rains, the lake floods” says Mr Asuman Moses Bwambale, the Town clerk of Katwe-Kabatooro, the urban authority that covers the lake.
Kasese local government used to earn about Shs 240 million annually in taxes from the salty lake but since last year, the revenues from salt mining have dwindled as a result of flooding.
Kasese Airfield is served by a (1570 x 30M) grass runway, but at times the nearby River Nyamwamba seasonally floods and causes operational hazards.
Ugandan President, Mr Yoweri Museveni while presiding over the 44th coronation anniversary for Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu in Kasese district on October 19, 2010 cautioned the people living around Mount Rwenzori of the dangers of degrading the water catchments which he said would cause disaster for the country.
“That forest on Mount Rwenzori is very crucial, all these rivers in Kasese and Kabarole are from that forest, so you should understand this and know that that forest is our mother not only for Rwenzori region but for other parts of the country, so tempering with the forest cover, people would perish of floods” he warned.
Floods have over years killed several people and displaced hundreds others in Kasese district especially in Kilembe and Karusandara sub counties and Hima town council.
Facts about Kasese district
- Kasese district is located along the Equator in the western region of Uganda. It borders the districts of Kabarole and Bundibugyo in the north, Lake George and Kamwenge in the east, Rubirizi district and Lake Edward in the south and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the west.
· The district has an approximate total area of 31,205 sq km that is covered by wetlands, water and a savannah type of vegetation. It has a mountainous terrain in the north with flat plains in the south.
· It receives an average rainfall ranging between 900-1600mm annually and two rain seasons that come between March to May and August to November. Temperatures normally range between 23.9ºc and 30.0ºc
· Kasese district is predominantly agricultural, relying on farming for employment and income. The people keep livestock including cattle, goats, sheep and pigs.
· In October 2004, 217 families (about 1500 people) in Karusandara were left homeless after floods hit the area
- On May 6, floods hit Kasese municipality and destroyed several properties and gardens.
· Mount Rwenzori is covered by snow throughout the year and is an important source of numerous tributaries to Lake Victoria and the Nile River.
- Rivers Nyamwamba, Rwimi, Mobuku, Ssebore, Lhubiriha, Mpanga, Nyamugasani among others and several streams flow from Mount Rwenzori and most of them empty into Lake George among other water bodies.
· People living on the slopes of the mountain basically practice poor farming methods thus causing soil erosion and numerous landslides.
· Deforestation is another major problem facing the mountain ranges. Over 90 percent of the communities living on the mountain slopes depend on firewood for fuel, leading to extensive destruction of forests letting floods in the low lands and global warming as the glaciers have been greatly affected and are disappearing steadily.
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