The administration of Nakasongola district which is prone to floods has allocated only five million shillings in the 2022-23 Financial Year to fight disasters as rains start.
The money is a 37.5 percent cut from the eight million shillings allocated to disasters in FY 2021-22.
Nakasongola District Hazard and Vulnerability profile indicated that the Sub-counties which are prone to floods are Kalungi and Lwampanga which are close to Lake Kyoga.
Others are Nakitoma sub-county which is close to River Kafu and Lugogo among others. The areas were affected by rising water levels at Lake Kyoga in 2020 leaving over 8,000 people displaced to date.
Moone, Muwunami, Kisenyi, Lwampanga and Kibuye landing sites were among the main hotspots for floods in 2020.
According to Sam Kigula the LC 5 Chairperson of Nakasongola, the district has since formed a Disaster Management Committee headed by David Nsamba as part of plans to respond to floods in case they re-occur.
He noted that the district has also been able to budget for only five million shillings in the financial year 2022/23 which is below eight million shillings in 2021/22.
The funds will be used mainly by the committee to carry out assessments in case of floods occur and report to the Office of the Prime Minister for support and although they prefer a bigger budget for disaster management, the local revenue envelope is still too small to enable them to allocate more funds for the response.
Kigula criticized the Office of the Prime Minister for allegedly failing to decentralize the management of disasters to districts affected by floods and other calamities.
