The government has promised to resettle all people affected living in mountainous areas to avoid the re-occurrence of the March 2010 landslides in Bududa district of eastern Uganda.
The landslides killed about 300 people and left more than 8,000 without shelter. About 2,500 of the Bududa landslide victims were transferred to a resettlement camp in Kiryandongo, mid western Uganda.
John Martin Owor, the commissioner for disaster preparedness and management in the Prime Minister Office says the government is set to start implementation of a five year resettlement scheme that will avail homes for all people living in disaster prone areas.
bududa landslides left many dead
He says the scheme to start in 2012 will see the government buying alternative land to resettle the people, and building them houses.
Owor says the government has started with resettlement of Bududa victims and is constructing 300 houses for them. They are currently living in make shift tents in the camp.
Owor says the government is to construct another 300 houses there is due for completion at the end of 2012.
But it emerged that the government had diverted some of the money budgeted for this exercise to the 2011 elections, after the EC asked for 602 billion supplementary budget.
The Principal disaster management officer in the Prime Minister’s office, Cyprian Dhikusooka told IRIN last week that some of the money was required to feed those still displaced in Bududa.
“But elections couldn’t wait, it’s a legal requirement – elections had to take place at that time,” he said.
In March 2011, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) renewed warnings of a deepening crack on the part of Elgon Mountain that runs 40km from River Lwakhakha on the Uganda-Kenya border through Manafwa, Bududa, Mbale, Sironko and Kapchorwa districts.
Owor says the government is currently carrying sensitization campaigns urging all people still in the areas to accept to be resettled in order to avoid becoming victims of natural disasters.