Residents of Nabuwutulu and Simu Sub-counties in the Elgon County, Bulambuli District have been left homeless after floods and landslides hit the area again on Tuesday.
Reports indicate that floods attributed to heavy rains that have been pounding the eastern region of late, destroyed livestock and crops though no loss of lives have been reported yet.
The affected areas are in lower Bulambuli in Elgon area one of the high-risk and disaster-prone areas that have experienced disastrous landslides before. In 2011, mudslides in Bulambuli killed 28 people.
According to Hon. John-Baptist Nambeshe one of the legislators from the region, the locals were lucky to survive this time because the incident happened during the day when people were out of their houses.
He says Bulambuli and the Elgon area was declared risk-prone areas but government intervention to relocate and resettle residents has been slow and therefore putting lives of people at a high risk.
President Museveni in July 2019 commissioned Bulambuli resettlement project, a long-term part of government’s strategy to permanently relocate and resettle communities in landslide and mudslide-prone areas in Bugisu Sub region following disastrous landslides in Bududa district in 2010 that claimed over 150 lives and displaced over 5000.
101 housing units at Bunambutye camp in Bulambuli District were commissioned, pending completion of 140 more houses to resettle affected residents.
Hon. Nambeshe however says that generally, response of government to crises in the region is unconvincing citing a case of Bududa which is one of the areas most hit by landslides saying the intervention is insignificant considering the magnitude of the problem.