200,000 Ugandans affected by disasters annually - World Bank

A section of Kilembe Town which was ravaged by floods recently. Photo by Ruth Katushabe 

By  MARTIN LUTHER OKETCH

 

KAMPALA- At least 200,000 Ugandans are affected by various types of disasters each year, the World Bank has said.

According to the World Bank, the high incidence of disasters occurring in Uganda every year has a negative impact on both the economy and people.

Presenting a paper on disaster management and climate change at a seminar in Kampala yesterday, a senior environment and disaster management official at the World Bank, Ms Magda Lovei, said disasters negates the gains in poverty reduction and development.

She identified drought and floods as the disasters afflicting people most.

Ms Lovei told Members Parliament who attended the seminar that households affected by particular disaster type in Uganda every year are as follows: droughts (55 per cent), floods (18 per cent), rain (5 per cent), 4 per cent (hailstorm), famine (4 per cent) landslides (4 per cent), rainstorm (2 per cent), epidemic (2 per cent) and other disasters (2 per cent).

With Uganda beginning to face the problem of climatic change, Ms Magda warned that about half of the country’s districts are likely to become drought–prone by 2035.

Due to climate change, Uganda is experiencing unreliable and extreme rainfall which results into shorter and irregular heavy rains as well as longer drought episodes.

“About half of all districts in Uganda experience annual rainfall deficits. Uganda receives lower than expected rainfall most of the time, thus droughts are frequent and pervasive,” she said.

Ms Magda added that natural resources represents significant economic value, pointing out that forestry’s contribution to GDP is 6 per cent, commercial users of forest products provide around 120,000 jobs and that over 99 per cent of Uganda’s rural people use wood or charcoal as fuel.

“The sustainable management of these natural resources is critical for Uganda’s long-term development. Yet, natural resources are being degraded and depleted. For instance Uganda’s forest cover declined from 35 per cent to 15 per cent in 100 years, with annual forest cover loss of 88,000 hectare a year,” she said.

On the way forward, Ms Magda advised the government to use a more proactive approach on prevention and mitigating of damages from disasters through restoration of degraded lands, reforestation, and sustainable natural resource management.

She said government should develop capacity for prediction of changes in precipitation, extreme weather events, and natural disasters through better hydro-meteorological forecasting capacity and system.

The Minister for Relief and Disaster Preparedness, Mr Hillary Onek said Uganda needs to have an early warning mechanism (system) to manage natural disasters to curb its impact on people and infrastructures.

The legislators called on the government to implement policies aimed at guarding against the destruction of the environment and provide more funds to respond to disasters.