Egypt – Prime Time Communications

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Irrigation, desilting could solve Ntoroko and Kasese flooding

#OutToLunch: Irrigation, desilting could solve Ntoroko and Kasese flooding By Denis Jjuuko Some parts of Uganda have started experiencing harsh weather events. Flooding is one of them. In the last few weeks, rivers Nyamwamba in Kasese and Semiliki in Ntoroko have burst their banks leading to flooding. The latest incident in Ntoroko displaced more than 24,000 people, submerged 11 schools thereby affecting more than 4,000 learners. Ntoroko leaders say that this is the worst flooding in more than 50 years. The flooding took place in late August after torrential rains in the nearby Democratic Republic of Congo. The rains in Ntoroko are expected between September and November and the place is already flooded! What will happen when the Ntoroko rains start falling? More people will be displaced. Ntoroko is such a low-lying area surrounded by the Rwenzori Mountain ranges, River Semiliki and Lake Albert. Rains in the DRC lead to rising water levels in Lake Albert and River Semiliki hence flooding that not only destroys people’s houses but also entire livelihoods. The people of Ntoroko have three major economic activities — farming, fishing and cattle keeping. The floods affect all those activities. Food gardens and pastures get submerged while roads are cut off. The people then start relying on donated food to survive while living in internally displaced people’s camps. The flooding in Ntoroko is not out of the blue. Given its terrain, flooding is always expected and has intensified since 2019. Nyamwamba in Kasese has been causing havoc for a long time. Some people who claim to know these things say that both Semiliki and Nyamwamba are so silted that the only result is flooding. Although I was in Ntoroko a week ago, I didn’t manage to visit Semiliki but for Nyamwamba, they have a point. Nyamwamba carries big boulders from the mountains into its path. Previously, after it had rained, tractors would remove these boulders so that whenever it rained again in the mountains, there would be space for water and other boulders. Probably this explains why facilities such as Kilembe hospital and residences were built so close to River Nyamwamba. The river was never a threat. People knew what to do. When I was in Kilembe last year, many boulders were not being removed from the river’s path. Given the neglect, Nyamwamba had to find its way. The end result is people losing their lives and properties. Some people will blame it on climate change. The real reason is that we forgot the basics — something as mundane as having a tractor removing the boulders from the river’s path! Most of the disasters affecting our people can be solved. In Ntoroko, flooding is always followed by a prolonged severe drought from December until the next rains around March. The price of a cow during this period falls by 90% if a farmer is lucky to find a buyer. The main reason is because of lack of water and pasture. In a place that was flooding a month or so before. With schools submerged, children are likely to abandon their education and resort to other activities like fishing immature fish. The girls will be married off before they even experience their first menstrual cycle. I heard that those who aren’t being married off are instead being booked by parents and guardians eager to earn a small fee that wouldn’t even enable them to buy a scraggy cow. How difficult is it to dig up valley dams? How difficult is it to create an irrigation scheme so that livelihoods are not lost during the dry season? This would also ensure that kids are kept in school instead of fishing in dangerously rising waters or becoming mothers and wives before age. Money spent on infrastructure like roads, schools and health facilities is always lost due to flooding. Yet there are sustainable measures that the government can put in place to solve these challenges. Some of these measures can be implemented by the communities themselves. Others through entrepreneurship. People who own thousands of heads of cattle need technical advice to find sustainable solutions. And we can also learn from Egypt, a desert that supplies our markets with fruits that we have failed to grow. If you buy oranges from supermarkets, they are probably imported from Egypt that gets its water from the Nile for irrigation. They built the delta barrage that has saved them from flooding while using that water for irrigating their crops. And the delta barrage was constructed nearly 200 years ago. In the 21st century, we should be solving some of these challenges. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

October 21, 2024

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch African leaders must think beyond themselves

By Denis Jjuuko There is a chilling thread on Twitter of somebody detailing their experience of freeing the Sudanese capital Khartoum to Egypt to seek refuge as war intensifies in one of Africa’s leading gold exporters and a significant market for Uganda’s coffee and tea. The current crisis in Sudan has been years in making and can be traced to the war in the Darfur region, which led to Omar al Bashir being indicted by the international criminal court. Before Bashir could be arrested to stand trial, civilians tired of three decades of dictatorship rose against him leading to a coup by his generals. In a bid to entrench himself for a life presidency, Bashir had led to the formation of a militia that annihilated people in Darfur that was commonly known as the Janjaweed, a ragtag group of youth with a license to maim and kill. It worked for Bashir for a while but more so for a half-educated camel trader or raider or bandit depending on which reports you read known as Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo alias Hemedti (little Mohammed). As Bashir’s executioner in chief of those who opposed his misrule, Hemedti ended up with a militia of around 170,000 fighters (the Sudanese army is believed to have 120,000 soldiers). For his atrocities, Bashir paid him by handing over some of Sudan’s largest gold mines. With money and Bashir’s backing, Hemedti created a force that has even sent some of it force as mercenaries to wars in Yemen thereby endearing himself to Saudi Arabia and UAE. With access to money and guns, Hemedti forced a vulnerable Bashir to make him a general in the army while keeping the Janjaweed to himself. He would rename them the Rapid Support Force (RSF) in 2013, a paramilitary group at his command. When civilians rose against Bashir in 2019, he expected Hemedti to act as he had always done before. Hemedti instead saw an opportunity for something bigger than he had ever imagined — a chance to lead Sudan. So he teamed up with Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and overthrew his mentor and benefactor and in the meantime have civilians lead. Burhan and Hemedti would soon overthrow the civilians and entrench themselves. Burhan as the leader and Hemedti as his deputy. It was a marriage of convenience. Burhan and the tribes along the Nile River that have traditionally ruled Sudan never trusted Hemedti who is considered an outsider. He is believed to have been born in the mid 1970s in Darfur (though some believe he was born in Chad) in camel trading tribes. Hemedti isn’t a fool. He knew Burhan’s schemes against him and the power struggle led to the escalation of hostilities among the Sudanese army and the RSF. More than 500 civilians have reportedly been killed. A similar story is raging in almost every part of Africa, perhaps the world’s richest continent due to natural resources endowments. Gold in Sudan is now a source of arms that are being used to kill each other instead of eliminating poverty. It is the same story in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Ethiopians don’t trust each other and have been cutting each other’s throats until very recently. Violence erupts at will in South Sudan. In Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, kids can’t be sure they can attend school without Boko Haram kidnapping them. South Africa, the third largest economy on the continent is collapsing under the weight of corruption and now load shedding is the order of the day. In Kenya, civilians burn themselves in the name of stolen elections just like Uganda has been over the years. If there is no violent crackdown on protestors, ministers are stealing cheap iron sheets meant for the poor. Cameroon is led by senile president who lives in Europe. Nigeria just elected another! There is hardly any part of Africa without its troubles or where trouble isn’t brewing because leaders are simply out of touch. Like we have seen with Bashir or Gaddafi before him, African leaders only build patronage systems instead of national institutions. Such systems are so vulnerable that they eventually lead to the turmoils like in Sudan and Libya. Unless you are a charlatan arms dealer, you think twice of investing in Africa. The Sudanese economy had never recovered from the protests of 2019 and Covid-19 and now its sky is filled with smoke from burning human flesh. South Sudan can’t export its crude oil now. Uganda’s coffee will get affected. Airlines flying into East Africa from Europe have already increased the tickets as avoiding the Sudanese airspace means longer journeys leading to increased costs of doing business. Why can’t Africa’s leaders think long term and beyond themselves? Can’t Burhan and Hemedti learn from the experiences of Bashir? That they too can end up in prison and their life presidency dreams curtailed? Should Sudan end with them? How is sharing power or handing it over to civilians be so difficult? To what end will they enjoy their ill-gotten wealth when their country is burning? The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

June 19, 2023