Disaster Risk Management Bill to address response challenges.

The office of the Prime Minister is working around the clock to have Disaster Risk Management Bill in place aimed at planning for an efficient multi hazard management and response in Uganda.

According to the OPM officials disaster risk management bill will stream line funding structures for disasters in the country for proper response of such risks.

This was revealed during a two day National Preparedness Dialogue that brings together stakeholders from central and district government, development partners and civil society to enable a deep and meaningful conversation about the existing challenges and actions needed to achieve in National Preparedness.

Speaking at the opening of the dialogue FAO / WFP representative Ryan Anderson, said that discussions on the National Preparedness Dialogue began back in April 2021 between the Office of the Prime Minister and FAO in the context of understanding the impact of the Desert Locust to promote learning and increased preparedness to mitigate the impact of future invasions.

Uganda had not seen a desert locust invasion in more than 60 years and was thankfully spared the full impact of the desert locust invasion that was experienced in other countries in the Horn of Africa says Ryan Anderson.

Effective control measures notably in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya were critical in mitigating the impact in Uganda in addition to the fact that initial swarms arrived outside the periods of crop production

Nonetheless, an estimated 750,000 households were affected in terms of their food security and livelihoods across Eastern and Northern Uganda, highlighting Uganda’s vulnerability to desert locust.

He notes that many more examples of hazards which were not adequately prepared for include COVID-19, the repeated floods and landslides across the country in 2019, 2020 and 2021, refugee influx and these are just some of the events that have underscored the need for better preparedness. And if we proceed with business as usual, that means the number of people in need will also increase.

On their part the ministry of Water and Environment is asking for more funds to capture historical information on water level that can be used for future to understand floods in specific areas.

According to Caroline Nakalyango official from the ministry of Water and Environment, currently the ministry cannot detect floods due to lack of machines that can be used to detect such disasters.

Speaking during the National Disaster Preparedness Dialogue Nakalyango said that lack of sufficient funds to establish monitoring systems that can help them to predict and warn the communities on floods and other risks.