Natural disasters: URCS, Weatherman partner to reduce losses
KAMPALA – The Uganda Red Cross Society [ URCS ] and the Uganda National Meteorological Authority [UNMA] have entered into a partnership, through which the latter will share weather and climate information while the former will help avert gross loss of lives and property during disasters.
Daily, UNMA forecasts weather conditions, their magnitudes, and areas to be affected, while URCS works to respond to dangers, especially those that involve loss of lives and property.
With the new partnership, URCS hopes to turn around the loss of lives and property based on the provided forecast information that comes as an early warning about the disasters that are about to happen.
The two agencies agreed on the partnership on Wednesday at Esella Country Club in Najeera where the URCS manager in charge of response and emergency preparedness, Emmanuel Ntale said, “This is a great stride in saving lives and property.
It will also change the way URCS operates as it helps them from a reactive to a proactive approach, using the information on early warning about disasters.
“Now we shall not only respond but also provide early action warning and plan. Normally when responding, the impact is so much, people have died, property destroyed, some non-recoverable, so such a forum will help us engage and save lives,” Ntale added.
He said URCS will use the data provided by the Meteorological department to better their operations and plan ahead of the catastrophes unlike before.
He added early warning and preparedness can go a long way in saving lives and property as well as funds, arguing the responsible departments to use such data as well.
Through the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness, government responds to several disasters with the help of other agencies.
The Emergency Preparedness and Response Manager at URCS Paul Okot argued that UNMA to integrate indigenous knowledge and views in forecasting information to make it more effective and relevant to the end-users, especially the farmers.
“It should be noted that indigenous knowledge on weather and forecasting is still relevant and effective. You need to put the science aside sometimes and also consider the indigenous views to make your work relevant,” he said.
UNMA already runs community farmer groups as well as working with several field farmer schools to collaborate the data and make forecasting relevant and valuable to communities.
David Elweru, UNMA’s acting executive director noted that the several village clinics set up by the authority are able to tap into the indigenous knowledge, although they are yet to be set up across the entire country due to financial challenges.
“We run village clinics that help in tapping into the indigenous knowledge, but we are challenged by the financial constraints to enable us spread widely,” he said.
URCS has always relied on local alarms from the communities threatened by disasters as well as physical appearance to respond to fatalities through evacuation, although on several occasions, disasters strike without plier warning signs leading to loss of lives and property.
One of the most prominent disasters that have occurred is the mudslides on Mt. Elgon in Bududa district, which claimed both lives of humans and animals and destroyed property.
The other is River Nyamwamba in Kasese which bursts its banks every year flowing into residential areas, destroying lives as well as government installations including health facilities.
UNMA has already predicted that the months of June, July, and August will have some parts of the country receive relatively higher amounts of rain, leading to severe cold conditions that may also give rise to breathing complications among people.
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