Recent floods indicate inaction not an option

Monday's torrential rains in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, unleashed a deluge of muddy water that turned a number of suburban areas into ‘rivers’ while destroying several properties. Local officials were quick to point out that nearly a year’s worth of rain pounded the capital in just a couple or so of early morning hours. 

The capital, they added, stood no chance, and was bound to be overwhelmed by the deluge. But that was really just half of the story. The tortuously slow wait to make inroads on a number of capital’s arteries—that were recently turned into dirt roads—barely helped matters.

As locals in the suburb of Nateete told this newspaper on Monday, building commercial structures on flood plains only ensures one outcome when rainfall records are broken. The outcome in question is, unsurprisingly, grim. The dramatic images of swells in multiple suburban locations on Monday told us as much, with city residents desperate to try and beat the steep odds they encountered ahead of the start of a new workweek.

With November having traditionally gained renown as the month when the heavens let loose, we should, sadly, expect the pattern of disruption witnessed on Monday to continue. As we digest the untenable contradictions that Monday's flooding laid bare, it is only right that adaptation and mitigation measures be seriously considered. What with the fact that weather events in the country are becoming more extreme with each passing day. The wets are getting wetter and the hots hotter.

Against such a backdrop, it is only reasonable that responsible authorities devote a much greater share of resources and attention to climate and energy policies. Sufficient measures ought to be taken to reduce the risk of floods by mitigating the damage inflicted on people and property. There should be no two ways about this, really. Uganda’s increasingly destructive weather cannot continue to be treated as some kind of footnote. No. 

Our leaders have a debt to us that goes beyond the ordinary. These are not ordinary times we are living in. Not by any stretch of imagination. The dangerous consequences of temperature rises have to be articulated in such a manner that demands the rich world to do its fair share of heavy lifting for the damage done. But also, just as important, we strongly believe our leaders should not aggravate the situation by way of their actions and inaction.

We demand answers to simple questions around, for one, what our flood prevention measures look like. Are business interests being demanded of more intelligent land and river management? They surely cannot continue to plant their feet in flood plains. It is abundantly evident that our leaders are not as methodically focused and robust as they ought to be when going about enforcing necessary measures. This has not been without consequences as events on Monday proved. For that we demand better. Much better.