Prime
Deaths due to lightning strikes call for urgent govt action
Raphael Magyezi
What you need to know:
- Gravity of lightning. According to Accweather, about 2,000 people are killed worldwide by lightning every year. Hundreds more survive strikes, but suffer from a variety of lasting symptoms, including memory loss, dizziness, weakness, and numbness. Others endure paralysis or cardiac arrest and other life-altering ailments. However, most people die due to shock.
On June 4, lightning struck people who were taking shelter under a tea collection shade in Nyanga village, Bitooma Town Council, leaving five people dead and 20 others hospitalised. In the same week, another person was killed in Nkuuna village, Nyabubare Sub-county, all in Igara West constituency, Bushenyi. It is sad that my constituency has been consecutively affected by lightning strikes for several years now. We continue to bury our beloved ones due to this catastrophe.
In 2014, we lost five pupils at Nyakabingo Primary School in Kakanju Sub-county. It pains me that we continue to lose lives helplessly and nothing is being done. I wish to share my concern and call for action by government and all stakeholders in this regard. The cost of losing people is high because it deprives us of manpower, leads to heavy costs of funeral arrangements, and causes anxiety and fear among the people. I found it disturbing when the residents told me: “You are lucky that it happens when you are not here”.
I am highly indebted to my constituency, and Bushenyi District local government for their quick response and support to the lightning-affected families.
Mr Benon Twinamasiko, a physicist at Makerere University, explains what the lightning phenomenon is all about. He says lighting is due to electrostatic discharge. Electrostatic is that state in which electric charges (both negatives and positives) are static.
The law of electrostatics states “like charges of electricity repel each other, whereas unlike charges attract each other.” When the clouds are negatively charged, they attract positive charges on any object or body, including a human being, tree or building at any sharp point.
During a rumbling storm, when the electric charges meet, they neutralise and the negatives are pushed through any conductor to the earth. Eventually, the electrical resistance in the air between the charged regions breaks down and a flash appears. The resulting lightning strikes are an electrical discharge between the positive and negative regions. The earth is the mother of negative charges.
Many of the deceased persons struck by lightning were positioned under open tea collection shades, school buildings or open/bare hilltops.
The expert advises that lightning will strike any object if it is not protected with a suitable arrester. And human beings are a conductor (due to fluids in the body) through which charges get to the ground. A tea shade, school or any building structure is susceptible to lightning because it is the nearest object between clouds and earth.
Precautions during rumbling storms or heavy downpour include shunning taking shelter under a tree or unprotected building, avoiding playing in open places, wearing rubber shoes and avoiding using umbrellas with sharp metallic points. A barefooted human being playing in stagnant water during a rumbling storm, is at a high risk of being struck by lightning.
According to Accweather, about 2,000 people are killed worldwide by lightning every year. Hundreds more survive strikes, but suffer from a variety of lasting symptoms, including memory loss, dizziness, weakness, and numbness. Others endure paralysis or cardiac arrest and other life-altering ailments.
However, most people die due to shock.
Global Hydrology Resource centre, NASA, ascertains that more lightning occurs more on land than over ocean. In addition, not all land regions experience the same amount of lightning. Spatial differences in lightning distribution may result from the variable topography and weather patterns of different regions. The place on earth with the most lightning strikes per square kilometre is Lake Maracaibo, a large tidal bay in northern Venezuela. There, lightning occurs for almost 300 nights a year.
Mr Godfrey Mujuni, a meteorologist at Uganda Meteorological Authority, affirms that south western Uganda and areas of Lake Victoria are located in a lightning corridor, hence are prone to lightning strikes. Under disaster management, the occurrence of lightning cannot be stopped because it is associated with rainfall and we receive conventional rain. Privileged to be lying along the Equator, Uganda attracts solar heating hence experiencing a lot of evapotranspiration. He confirms that Bushenyi District is a hotspot for thunderstorm clouds.
The abstract paper presented on Lighting Hazard Mitigation in Uganda at the International Conference on Lightning Protection in 2014 in Shanghai, China revealed that lightning safety of a developing country, should be addressed as an integral part of the national development programme.
There should be multi-sectoral contributions from government, non-governmental organisations, academia, voluntary community workers, social leaders and international organisations to envelop the mitigation plan for lightning safety.
Besides, there are enduring challenges in promoting lightning safety in Uganda such as poverty, illiteracy, disorganised and uncoordinated nature of various institutions that are directly responsible for lightning hazard mitigation as noted in the abstract paper.
Government should develop policies and standards, commence community sensitisation and subsidise the costs of lightning conductors to increase affordability and access among the affected publics.
Lastly, government ought to urgently devolve the budget for disaster management to local councils for speedy response and care to the affected families.
Mr Magyezi is a Member of Parliament for Igara West Constituency in Bushenyi District.
