LET’S ENSURE CLIMATE RESILIENCE
Climate change has contributed to more extreme weather patterns, including heavy rains, which have resulted in global greenhouse gas emissions, many of which come from burning fossil fuels.
By Guest Writer
OPINION: Editor, Last week, the media reported that floods submerged farms in Kasenyi village in Buliisa district near Total Energies, where a thousand people were affected.
The residents blamed Total for clearing up swathes of trees and leaving the land barely to pave a way for the Tilenga project to process crude oil pipeline, which has caused more floods that have destroyed residents farms and gardens and brought stagnant water.
Some of the residents in Kasenyi added that the clearing of swathes of trees has not only caused flooding by increasing temperatures arising from environmental degradation (deforestation) but has also eroded climate change in already poor and vulnerable communities and led to other negative consequences like food insecurity and water scarcity in Kasenyi village in Buliisa district.
The quality of life has also been reduced given the burden placed by numerous uncoordinated effects on the environment in Kasenyi village in Buliisa district. Diseases are rampant due to stagnant water brought by floods; healthy lifestyles continue to suffer; and development is stifled.
All this shows that Climate Change is an important aspect that needs to be handled carefully since it affects our lives and, most especially, the vulnerable people in oil host communities where the cutting of trees is at a high level.
Climate change has contributed to more extreme weather patterns, including heavy rains, which have resulted in global greenhouse gas emissions, many of which come from burning fossil fuels.
Over the years, droughts, overflooding, and landslides, among others, have affected communities like Bududa, Kabale, and now Kisenyi in Buliisa district in many negative ways, such as loss of property and people’s lives, and furthermore, it has increased levels of food insecurity in our country.
Total, together with the government of Uganda, must design and construct a resilient drainage system for the people of Kasenyi village in Buliisa district to stop floods, which have caused food insecurity, destruction of crops and farm lands, and stagnant water that has increased mosquitoes among the residents in the area where the Tilenga project is taking place. Total should also ensure that all affected people are compensated for the losses in order to improve their standards of living.
The author is Olive Atuhaire, Ndejje University.
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