FRESH LANDSLIDES HIT KISORO AND KABALE DISTRICTS AS THE HOPE OF RECOVERING MORE BODIES BURIED UNDER HEAVY SOIL AND ROCKS IN BUDUBA FADES.

Writes Leo Odera Omolo.

KISORO district suffered two more landslide incidents in the last ten days, resulting in 15 houses being destroyed and flattened.

According to the area District Commissioner, Gideon Ahwhwo, no one was reported killed when the latest eruption occurred at Nyabisenya and Matora sub-counties, which were hit on Thursday night.

The residents of the two villages, however, reported that all their crops in the field were destroyed and covered by a mixture of red soil and rocks.

Landslides also hit Rubaya Butanda sub-counties, where some 15 homesteads were flattened. The Rubaya-Katuna road was also blocked by rocks, thereby cutting it off for motorists.

The Minister for Water and Environment, Jenipher Namuyangu said floods were likely to occur in Central, Eastern and Western Uganda. She advised the communities living in low lying and flood prone areas to shift to the higher grounds.

“Those responsible for relief are also advised to prepare for possible flooding in the high risk regions”, the Minister said during the government briefings at the Media Centre in Kampala on Thursday. She was flanked by weather experts from the meteorological department.

She said the scientists have predicted that there will be strong dust winds, hailstorms and lightening as the El-Nino rains continue to hammer the country.

The Minister also expressed the fear that water born diseases, like cholera and typhoid, may also occur and she appealed to the Health Ministry officials to equip hospitals and health centers with drugs. “Appropriate action should be taken to avoid more loss of lives and destruction of infrastructures”, she added.

But despite the gloomy outlook, she said, the El Nino rains bring some benefits to the farming communities as increased agricultural output, as the soil mixture will be higher.

“Regions that are expecting normal and above the normal rainfall should use this chance to improve agricultural activities. The farmer should take the advantage and make good use of the rainy season by planting enough food crops that will also cater for the usually drought stricken areas. The rains will also enhance the potential for hydro-electric power generations due the enhance water volume”, said the Minister.

At the same time, hope of finding more survivors of the massive landslide, which buried three villages in Buduba dimmed yesterday, five days after the incident occurred on Monday, and after rescuers who continued to dig up the earth in search of survivors said it would be hard to find anyone alive five days after disaster struck.

The army, the Uganda Red Cross personnel, residents and volunteers continued digging up the earth with bare hands and using rudimentary tools like hoes and spades, while relatives who clung into some hope of finding their loved ones alive sunk into further agony.

Uganda Peoples Defense Force {UPDF}has deployed more than 250 soldiers from the engineering department, who are helping in the search for survivors and bodies, and also rendering the local communities with help, so that they can return to the normal life.

“ I really don’t think there is any slight hope of finding more survivors because of the mixture of mud soil and the rocks. The hand tools the rescuers are using are inadequate”, Michael Nateka, the general Secretary of the Uganda Red Cross was quoted as saying.

Since Monday, only 94 bodies have been found, says local village leaders. The UPDF operations is led by Brigadier Patrick Kankiriho, the Commander of the 3rd Division.

Brig Kankiriho said, “ Our role is to evacuate casualties, rescue the trapped and recover the bodies”. He said this as his men attacked the soil with hand hoes and spades. There was evident lack of heavy earth moving machineries in the place, according to an eye witnesses.

The Army chief said it was impossible to take the heavy earth moving equipment to the affected areas, given the poor land terrain.

Curious onlookers, relatives and sympathizers walked from distance villages to witness one of the worst natural calamities to ever occur in Uganda, and walked back to their home under heavy downpour.

Survivors of the Monday evening horrifying landslide eruption, which took place in the three villages located on the slopes of Mt Elgon, in Bugisu, in which hundreds of people perished, have given the shocking details of the account of what happened on that fateful night.

They said it had been raining the whole day, but the busy villagers went about their business as usual without any fuss.Then exactly at 8PM, a loud bang was heard as rolling rocks hit the villages.

“We heard a loud bang up the mountain ranges. The nearby trading center was still busy with people who had taken shelter along the shops from rains. It caught many people unawares of the unfolding event. Then the rocks rolled down at high speed and hit the shopping center like lightening. Many people fled to scamper for safety, but it was too late.

It was the same story in the nearby Namatsi village, which bore the brunt of the raging weather.

What the survivors’ narrated looked like miracle escape and the futile attempt to come into terms with their predicament.

Landslide with less causalities occurred in the region in 1997.

Mr Isaac Watyekere, a 20 year old man who lost his father, Efusa Nasibi 49, mother Rosemary Nanduki 47, four brothers and six sisters, said he received the sad news while learning in class room at Bushika Senior Secondary, via a mobile phone call from a relative, who advised him to take a Boda Boda motorbike taxi and rush home.

But on the way, a friend told him exactly what happened. He could not believe his eyes. His entire family had been wiped out and the home turned upside down, leaving a trail of red soil and mud mixture with heavy rocks. He said he was unable to recognize and pin-point the exact position of his parents homestead. But he was lucky, because by the time he arrived, he was shown the bodies of his mother and one brother.

Another village visited by this disaster was Kibehwo. There, the residents said they heard an unusual sound, but only started fleeing after some rocks flew past their homes. At first, there were some loud cries by the victims, but the cries faded too fast and within minutes there were no more sounds of anybody around.

Everything had been buried underneath of rock’s and mud, and the survivors tried to dig out their kin in vain”, said Damascus Wanyenga, 27, who said that his entire family of eight people, two women, three sisters and two young men, were gone, and none of the bodies had been retrieved from the mud soil, which is as heavy as 20 feet high.

Michael Musema, 19, said his parent’s farm was flooded, forcing them to dig out channels and trenches so that water could flow downstream. After completing the drainage work, it was too cold, and he and his brothers and tired father went home. They feel like warming themselves up with cups of tea. The father rushed to the nearby shopping centre to buy a kilo of sugar. And that was the last time he saw his father alive. He perished together with dozens of other people who had taken shelter in the shops, as well as all the shop keepers. What was left is only red soil and heavy rocks

Many survivors had a lot to tell.

ENDS