Prime
Climate change: Government is fixing resilience actions
Mr Alfred Okot Okidi. Photo/Courtesy
What you need to know:
- Uganda Investments Authority ensures efficiency in resource use by providing designs which cater for climate resilience infrastructure in our industrial parks. Other government agencies such as National Environment Management Authority and all municipalities handle waste disposal.
The climate change crisis has attracted attention from all government institutions and partners to champion actions which are aimed at slowing down the crisis. There are numerous interventions Uganda is undertaking to address climate change; with some of them being financed by government, development partners, civil society and other players.
All our interventions as a country are guided by the National Climate Change agenda which is clearly defined in the Climate Change Policy of 2015 and the Action Plan is defined in the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) 2020-2030, a 10-year plan.
To address climate change as a country, we base our actions on the four categories/subjects which are:
1. Adaptation; where you have to provide irrigation facilities, properly designed roads, awareness creation, and planting resilient crop varieties
2. Mitigation (how we address causes of climate change)
3. Implementation
4. Policies, laws and regulations. All the above three subjects are critically enabled by the latter.
The Ministry of Water and Environment coordinates implementation of all climate change actions across the spectrum in all the public sectors, non-governmental organisations, private sector, and others.
The ministry also coordinates national climate change responses on climate change by putting up appropriate laws, policies, guidelines, regulations, tools and enhancing capacity building.
We further monitor climate change aspects across all sectors and we report on the national efforts of addressing climate change and its causes, both nationally and internationally.
We also carry the task of coming up with all the science information regarding climate change in our country.
Other than guiding all partners, our other activities as Ministry of Water are implemented in line with all the water, environment, forestry, wetlands resources.
The climate change department does overall coordination with the Ministry of Water and outside the ministry.
When it comes to improving drought resistant agricultural practices, we come in to boost irrigation through both small- and large-scale irrigation schemes. The ministry too provides valley tanks and earth dams as water storage facilities with bulk water supply to address long droughts affecting our farmers.
In cases where there is higher need for domestic and commercial purposes and taking measures to mitigate adverse environmental and social impacts, we provide large gravity flow schemes.
We also handle catchment and wetlands protection, watershed management, water resources which are coordinated through the Directorate of Water Resources Management and Directorate of Environment Affairs. Forestry protection is provided through Forestry Sector Support Department.
When it comes to agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries is addressing climate change through sustainable fisheries resources management, data sharing for climate change mitigation and promotion of climate resilient agriculture practices and technologies.
For the roads’ infrastructure, Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) constructs resilient infrastructure to address effects of climate change. For instance; the problem of heavy flooding of roads in Kasese caused by the floods from River Nyamwamba has been addressed well. There are many bridges that have been reconstructed to be resilient to climate change effects.
Uganda Investments Authority ensures efficiency in resource use by providing designs which cater for climate resilience infrastructure in our industrial parks. Other government agencies such as National Environment Management Authority and all municipalities handle waste disposal. Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development ensures that people of all ages are not affected by effects of climate change.
I, therefore, call upon everyone to join the Ministry of Water and Environment as we create synergies for our country to fulfil requirements for climate change adaptation, mitigation and implementation of both national and international obligations.
The writer is Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Water and Environment
