Kasese Floods

Wednesday 1^st May was a Public Holiday in Uganda, “Labour-Day”: a celebration of the hard work done by ordinary Ugandans, day in, day out.  The daily struggles of the people of Kasese, however were about to get a lot harder as unusually heavy rains throughout the District caused the rivers to swell and burst their banks to catastrophic effect.  Kilembe, the small ex-mining town up the hill from Kasese was worst hit with the hospital completely flooded, its staff quarters demolished and hundreds of homes destroyed.  The Nyamwamba river which runs down the Rwenzori mountains through Kilembe and into Kasese carved an arc of destruction through Kilembe, Congo Quarter, the edge of Acholi Quarter and other residential areas before sweeping across the main Kasese-Fort Portal road taking two trucks with it, and dumping a huge tide of mud, sand and debris at the edge of Kasese airfield.  The numbers keep changing, but currently stand at a death toll of 8, many acres of crops and over 1,000 homes flooded and several thousand people displaced into temporary camps in 2 local schools.  The destruction of several bridges in Kilembe left parts of the town cut off completely, Congo Quarter became an island accessible only by wading waist-deep, and the Kasese-Fort Portal was hampered by floods and damage to bridges.

We were in Kampala filing papers for our work-permit renewals and collecting Bethan’s parents and were horrified by the national newspaper reports from our home town.  We were fortunate to get back on Sunday evening, safely crossing a bridge which has subsequently collapsed, in time to get an initial needs assessment from Pastor Alfonse.  The Ugandan Police and Defence Forces were working on access to those trapped in Kilembe and the Red Cross and World Vision were registering and providing food and first aid to those assembling at the schools.  Our British friends Glenys and Roger London who work for “Watchmen International” have an ongoing water project and were setting up their water-filters at the temporary camps.  However, despite what seems like equatorial heat to the visitor, it’s pretty cold here now by local standards and most of the people sleeping in the schools had no blankets, having lost all their bedding when their houses flooded. 

What do you do when thousands of people are in need and you only have limited resources?  Alfonse’s sensible solution was to target the community of Congo Quarter, a cluster of around fifty families (300-400 people) mostly Congolese migrants whose homes had been flooded and who could easily be overlooked by the bigger agencies’ focus on Kilembe.  Aided by a speedy response from BMS we were able to get our hands on about £330 with which to buy blankets.  Alfonse negotiated a good price but there were only 60 left in Kasese market, more were on a bus from Kampala which was stuck the wrong side of the bridge at Mobuku (the one we’d crossed 2 days earlier), half of which had now collapsed.  We drove the market-lady to the bridge where vehicles were queued on either side with police controlling a steady relay of pedestrians and bikes shuttling across the broken bridge bearing sacks of food, roofing sheets, blankets and other goods.

A regrettably common feature of disaster responses is that each agency does their own thing without reference to anyone else, which we were determined to avoid.  So on our return to Kasese with our trusty Landcruiser filled with 133 blankets we went to Kasese primary school, from where Alfonse had obtained a list of affected households, to register with the Red Cross that we had blankets to give those listed from Congo Quarter.  The scene at the Primary School was fairly confused so we drove across town to the Red Cross Office, where a helpful Red Cross official informed us that all Aid efforts were being co-ordinated at the District Government’s Offices in Rukoki – about 6km back along the Fort Portal Road, by someone called the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), who was in a meeting and wouldn’t answer his phone.  On arrival at CAO’s office his secretary and some other officials thanked us and told us to proceed with the distribution and bring a report on completion, and endorsed our request for 2 policemen to provide security.  We returned to town via the Municipal Council Offices, where no-one was in, to the Police Station.  The Police Officer in charge was happy to arrange 2 policemen for us, but first needed authority from the CAO, who was concluding his meeting at the office of the Residential District Commissioner (RDC).  Driving back across town to the RDC’s office we met the CAO who insisted that any aid supplies had to first be registered by his storekeeper at – wait for it – the District Offices in Rukoki.  Our protest that we’d been there earlier, no storekeeper had been present and that his own staff had sent us away fell on deaf ears, not budged by both Alfonse and I expressing our frustration at him.  Indeed he threated to arrest us if we distributed any aid that had not first been through his storekeeper.  Back to Rukoki we went to find the storekeeper, now in his office.  The storekeeper counted our blankets and scrutinised my receipt for them before signing them into his store and then signing a separate form to re-issue them back to us.  This form also required the signature of 2 separate auditors who had by now gone for lunch, and was supposed to be accompanied by an official headed letter from the donor agency.  Keeping calmer this time we managed to persuade him that we could provide all the necessary headed letters and signatures the following day if he would just let us proceed with the distribution – for which people were already gathering at Alpha School in Acholi Quarter.  Still without any paperwork from the District Offices, but only with verbal agreements on both sides we sped back to Kasese, picked up 2 policemen and headed to Acholi Quarter where the residents of Congo Quarter and some other parts of the flooded Nyamwamba valley were gathering at Alpha School, away from the crowds at the schools and in a location where we could control access.

Following this frenetic half-day of bureaucratic farce the actual distribution went smoothly.  The local LC1 (politician) was present and he and Pastors Alfonse and Alex were able to confirm the identities of those who came against the lists we had.  Then they were welcomed into the school hall one by one to sign/thumb print their name and collect 2 blankets per household, before being ushered out of the opposite door by 1 of the policemen.  For those who were too sick or disabled to come in person a trusted delegate was able to collect their blankets.  In all 58 households from Congo Quarter received 2 blankets each and a further 17 households from other areas in Nyamwamba Division received 1 blanket each.  When evening came we were exhausted, but pleased to have been able to help, even if only in a small way, and very grateful for Bethan’s parents who’d looked after our 2 boys all day!  I spent the rest of the evening completing the official headed letter, and copies of the signing sheets which were delivered in triplicate to various government offices this morning!

Most of the floodwater has now subsided, and we were able to walk through Congo Quarter today without getting our feet wet, but the dense mud makes those houses still standing uninhabitable while others simply disappeared into the massive ravine which the river carved out for itself as it swept through peoples garden plots destroying the new season’s crops and dumping mud and sand everywhere.

Prayer Requests:

·         Give thanks that the flooding was not at night – which would have caused many more deaths.

·         Give thanks for the timely provision of food and medical support by the Red Cross and World Vision – and for those of you who fund them.

·         Pray that government of Uganda at all levels will double its efforts to get the right help to the right people at the right time and to repair the bridges and roads.

·         Pray that the rains will not cause further flooding.

·         Pray for the slower and harder process of recovery as people try to re-build their homes and livelihoods.

·         Pray for greater awareness here of the dangers of de-forestation, flood-plain cultivation, shoddy building and other practices which exacerbate natural disasters.