Members of Parliament from different committees have asked the government to allocate more funds for disaster preparedness and ensure the issue of climate change is prioritised so that loss of lives is averted.
The lawmakers said Uganda experiences a wide range of disasters in various hotspots across the country and most of the recorded disasters are climate and weather related but these issues have never been given priority by the government.
The remarks were made during an engagement between MPs and Uganda Red Cross Society, Uganda National Meteorological Authority, Office of the Prime Minister and World Food Program on anticipatory action on climate change.
The state minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Esther Anyakun, said MPs should ensure that the budget is increased for the ministry so that they don’t only depend on a contingency budget.
"If we continue depending on the contingency funds, it won’t be possible to fully address some of these issues because other issues are coming in. You see, for the last two years, we had Covid-19 it took most of the contingency funds and right now we still have Covid-19 and there is also Ebola," she said.
Tororo Woman MP Sarah Opendi, also a member of parliament’s committee on Climate Change said that it is about time funding is prioritised and urged the government to adopt a pro-active and not reactive approach.
"We allocate funds as legislators but do this based on prioritisation. We find that issues around climate change are not prioritised because our resource envelope is limited," she said.
Robert Kwesiga, secretary general at Uganda RedCross Society said there has to be a mindset change and the planners need to consider early actions that can be taken for those disaster-prone areas.
"Early warning, early action interventions are key in managing disasters and emergencies. The process starts with prediction, community engagements, response and walking the journey with the communities affected by disaster," he said.