Legislators sitting on the Parliamentary Forum on Disaster Risk Reduction chaired by Isingiro South MP, Alex Byarugaba have urged the government to allocate an extra Shs 66 billion to the Contingency Fund to address the deadly seasonal floods that have claimed lives of many Ugandans.
Byarugaba told the press on Monday that much as government has for the firat time earmarked Shs 77 billion for the Fund in the proposed 2018/19 national budget, it is below of 0.5% of the 2017/18 budget as stipulated by section 26 of the 2015 Public Finance Management Act.
The committee chairperson said that governments still need to do more in addressing the issues of disaster management as well as the seasonal floods that arise from incidents that can be mitigated.
He said that the poor social and environmental safeguards continue to prevail across different government institutions most of which are poorly funded.
“There is as well increased encroachment on wetlands in contravention with the policy provisions and presidential directives on Wetland restoration,” Byarugaba said.
He also attributed the increased floods across the country to the rampant encroachment on forests and illegal extraction of timber which has led to degradation and destruction of natural forests and tree cover in Uganda.
Legislators as well highlighted the need to allocate more money to the Tree Fund so that National Forest Authority can tackle forest cover which was 24% in 1990 reduced to 11% in 2015 to 9% in 2017.
The Legislators called on the President to consider launching a campaign dubbed, “Keep Uganda Clean Day” as a mandatory monthly exercise following the latest reports on flooding across the country especially due to poor waste management in Kampala slums.
Makindye MP Ibrahim Kasozi accused local councilors of receiving bribes from the private garbage collectors at the expense of residents.
At several occasions, the State Minister for Environment, Mary Goretti Kitutu has decried the inadequate capacity by National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and National Forestry Authority (NFA) to fight encroachment on environmental resources.
She has also previously proposed that government creates an enforcement entity specifically mandated to protect forests and wetlands.
