By URN
More than 3,500 families whose homes were submerged by floods in Buliisa district have renewed calls for compensation or resettlement.
The families were displaced when floods submerged their homes in 2020 and destroyed property valued at millions of shillings at various landing sites. The floods swept through villages, farms and towns after the Lake Albert water rose to abnormal levels arising from the intense rains in the country that year.
The most affected were from Wanseko, Katanga, Masaka landing sites in Kigwera Sub-County and Kawaibanda, Butiaba, Boma, Kigangaizi, Tugombili in Butiaba town council, Walukuba, Bugoigo, Kamagongoro, Kigungu, Serule, Piida, Waisoki, Triangle and Magali in Butiaba sub-county, Kabolwa and Kigoya landing sites in Buliisa sub-county.
The victims were then accommodated in churches, schools, and under trees while others erected makeshift structures. In 2021, Robinah Nabbanja, the Prime Minister rushed to the area to assess the magnitude and degree of destruction caused by the floods and assured the victims that the government would compensate and resettle them.
Nabbanja then explained that the government was profiling all flood-affected persons in the district for their resettlement. She tasked leaders in Buliisa district to work closely with her office to ensure that the resettlement plan was worked on.
However, according to both the residents and the local leaders, not much has been done by the government to mitigate their plight, even where it is being exacerbated by state-sponsored activities like the oil and gas projects.
Many have now lost hope of being compensated by the government for their properties and have since sought either alternative sources of livelihood or returned to their original living conditions after the water subsided.
Frederick Watum, a resident of Kisansya in Kigwera Parish, Buliisa Sub County, feels the government has no interest in alleviating their poor conditions. “Why us? Look at how the government rushed to rescue the people of Bududa when a landslide hit. They have even provided free land for them! But us, why now for three years?” he wonders.
Buliisa specifically suffers not only because of the rains in the Albertine region (western rift valley region and the Rwenzori mountain system) but also because it is downstream of Lake Victoria and River Nile, which empties into Lake Albert on its way to North Africa.
Most of the human activities, including settling, farming, grazing and fishing, are done in the flat lowlands, which are therefore prone to floods, should the water levels rise. Apart from the terrain, Buliisa (locally meaning region of livestock grazing) has dryer weather conditions compared to most of the other parts of Uganda south of the Nile.
This means that the cultivators have a limited variety of crops they can grow, while the livestock farmers have to be worried about both floods and the dry season due to disease outbreaks and the scarcity of water and pasture respectively. When the areas become flooded, the animals have to be driven to higher grounds for survival from water-borne diseases, while in longer dry seasons, they lose hundreds of animals due to lack of water and pasture.
Former Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda had also toured the areas of Buliisa to assess the growing impact of floods on the communities, on the directives of the president, and promised adequate interventions. Nothing has come from these hope-giving statements.
Buliisa LCV Chairperson Fred Lukumu says that they responded by registering and profiling all the flood victims and forwarded their details to the Office of the Prime Minister as requested but never got a response.
The residents now feel the climate challenges are being abetted by the activities of the oil and gas sector in the region, which have involved deep excavations, clearing of vegetation and alleged displacement of wild animals from protected areas because of the noise and bright lights at night.
They also say water sources, especially for safe drinking water, have also been submerged by floods induced by the sector’s activities.
TotalEnergies, the main implementor of the oil and gas projects in Buliisa, dismisses the fears saying that they have always put in place mitigating and restoration measures, by their internal policies, government standards and international best practices.
The company, for example, mentions the water sources they have established across the district, sinking dozens of boreholes for the communities. Philippe Groueix, the General Manager of TotalEnergies E&P says that today, at least 5,000 households in the district have safe drinking water courtesy of the company’s programmes.
“We need the government to play its part also and fulfil its pledges. Total cannot effectively respond to the challenges we are facing,” Watum said.
Moses Kiiza, one of the flood victims says many families displaced by the floods had rented in safer places hoping that it wouldn’t be long before the government came in, however, they are now being evicted by their landlords. Some who had the buildings submerged or destroyed have since returned saying that they don’t expect floods to return soon.
“Our parents told us that the 2020 floods came 60 years after the last floods. So we expect we shall not experience the same until after another 60 years,” one of them said.
For more than a month now, the communications department at the Office of the Prime Minister has not issued the update statement that Charles Odongtho, the Spokesperson had promised, despite reminders.
One of the setbacks in the health system in the district was the destruction of Butiaba Health Centre III by the floods. The facility was relocated three times in two years, from its original space to a primary school, to the sub-county headquarters and temporarily to the district Fisheries Resource Centre in a tent.
Sanitation facilities that local governments had constructed in the lakeside towns were also destroyed and have never been restored. Open defecation is now the practice.
Tom Kaahwa, another victim said they feel that because their community is small compared to others where the government responds quickly during emergencies, they are neglected, despite Buliisa now being the centre of attraction because of the oil and gas resources there.
Billy Rwothungeyo, the African Media Officer at Minority Rights Group International reminded the government of its duty to protect the minority communities to avoid possible friction. “The Bagungu feel neglected and abandoned in their own country, yet they also pay taxes to the government,” he said.
This media exposure campaign on the plight of the affected communities is part of the program by the Minority Rights Group International to ensure equity and justice for the smaller indigenous communities.
