Flooding expected next month in Uganda

AllAfrica.com, via the New Vision (Uganda): The Government has begun emergency preparations ahead of the destructive El-Nino rains expected to start next month. The ministries of health, works and education are to make advance deliveries of emergency materials to areas most likely to be hardest hit, disaster preparedness minister Prof. Tarsis Kabwegyere said yesterday.

He said the emergency items include bailey bridges, inflatable boats, first-line drugs and emergency learning centres. Although the whole country will be affected by the El-Nino, the areas likely to be worst affected include the Teso region, Manafwa, Bundibugyo and the stretch between Hoima and Masindi districts.

Kabwegyere told journalists that a national task force on El-Nino has been formed in the Office of the Prime Minister, adding that it meets bi-weekly to chart out strategies. He also said the technical working group meets monthly. Seven ministries and three government agencies have been tasked to submit contingency plans to the Prime Minister's office.

…The El-Nino rains last occurred in Uganda in 2007, destroying crops and lives and disrupting social lives. The meteorology department has indicated that the El-Nino is expected between October to December and may spread to the usually dry months of January and February 2010….