Tag: climate-change

WHEN THE RAINS WREAK HAVOC 

Part 2

Yes, Kampala was  initially planned for not more than 500,0000 inhabitants but available data shows that during the day Kampala’s population is estimated at more than three million people!  The development in infrastructure, drainage channels, protection of wetlands and increase in tree cover has not matched its growth. The planning of the suburbs is no exception.

As the flash floods have become a perennial problem, there is a pressing  demand for specific planning, preparedness and quick responses to the impact of the problem.

I have just been to my home village in Mityana, 70 kilometres West of Kampala.

The extreme heat of February dried up many maize fields.

Currently, the frequent rains mean impassable roads and have laid waste to some of the crops.

By simple observation, while growing up our fields used to have trees as  boundary trees  or hedges. Trees like Calliandra( Kaliisambuzi), Grevillea Robusta, Albizzia( Mugavu).

 In the banana and coffee gardens there were always Mituba trees (used for making bark cloth) and others to provide shade and to support climbers like yams and passion fruit. Mituba trees also provided fodder for the goats.

Others included mangoes and Mivule(African teak)trees. They served as windbreaks- reducing the speed of strong winds and minimizing the soil erosion and crop damage. When pruned, the wood was used for cooking or building simple structures on the farm.

Some of them had medicinal purposes and others improved soil fertility by the bacteria in their roots fixing nitrogen for the crops.

Most fields I pass by are in the open, all trees cleared; rendering the land and crops vulnerable to floods and strong winds.

Farmers should be encouraged to plant indigenous windbreaks like Mugavu, Kaliisambuzi, Mukoge                as hedges or boundary trees.

I can recall visiting my sisters in South England in October 1987. On the night of 15-16 October, we were woken up by howling winds followed by heavy rains, power went off and we feared for our lives. There had been no warning of this severe weather event.

Early the next morning, peeking through the kitchen window we could see  huge trees uprooted all around us.

When power was restored, we learned that South England had suffered the worst storm since 1703 and the damage was estimated to be a billion pounds!  It took several weeks to clear the fallen trees. 15 million trees were destroyed, a number of them were a hundred years old and 18 people had died.

The UK MET office had missed the storm and at the same time, there was no way of warning the people about the severe storm.

After the storm , 500 million trees were planted and this time , trees with broad- based leaves were preferred to the pines and other conifers that made up the majority of those destroyed.

Among the lessons learned was the setting up of a National Severe Weather Warning Service to improve the quality of weather forecasts and to improve preparedness and response to the likely impact. Technology has also improved the quality of the forecasts.

Uganda and all countries have to devise locally appropriate strategies to reduce the main human activities that increase global warming and involve the people at the grass roots in campaigns for tree planting and adopting clean energy.

My geography teacher’s   voice still echoes: The higher you go, the colder it gets- for every 1000m climb, the temperature drops by 6.5 degrees Celsius.

Kigezi region 490 Kilometres South West of Kampala of altitude 1200-2000 metres above the sea level, has been the coldest region of Uganda. Mgahinga Gorilla National Park between 2,227-4,127 metres   above sea level has average temperatures of 20 degrees Celsius during the day while night time temperatures can drop to around 9 degrees Celsius!

In the 60s and 70s Kigezi region had an average temperature of 15-18 degrees Celsius. Currently it’s getting warmer due to deforestation and population pressure.

Kampala city at an altitude of about 1190 metres above sea level has an average daytime temperature 26-28 Celsius  and 16 degrees in the evening. During the February heat wave, temperatures  as high as 34 degrees Celsius were recorded in Kampala by the Uganda National Meteorology Authority.

In the 60s and 70s, Kampala’s daytime temperatures ranged from 21- 23 degrees Celsius.

 For now, due to global warming, the rains are wreaking havoc in both the cities and villages and the ordinary people are the worst impacted. More collective efforts and actions are demanded from everyone, everywhere to protect, save and preserve the environment.

“ The truth is : the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it.’’ – Sir. David Attenborough (world environmentalist and climate activist)

QUESTION:

How are you participating actively in stopping the polluting of the environment in your community?

A clean, safe environment starts with you and I.

WHEN THE RAINS  WREAK HAVOC 

Part 1

The two and half decades that I worked in Botswana, a country three times my country Uganda and 70 percent of its territory is the Kalahari Desert, I learned to treasure water, use it sparingly and to recycle it.  Even up to today I keep a permanent bucket in my kitchen to collect clean water used for washing vegetables or rinsing utensils for watering plants and trees in the kitchen garden and compound.

In a desert, water is life- part of food security, increases productivity in agriculture, energy and industry.

I quickly picked the 3Rs of the best practices of sustaining our environment namely: REDUCE, REUSE

and RECYCLE.

I arrived in Botswana during the severe drought of 1990-1995. I never saw a drop of rain until six months later! Very weird for a person born and raised at the Equator.

On my return to Uganda, I have come to realise that there have been a lot of changes in the weather patterns and the day to today minimum and maximum temperatures. The rainy seasons are no longer as predictable as they used to be while I was growing up in the 60s and 70s. The two rainy seasons in the Central region used to be March to May and then September to November. Now Uganda experiences short, heavy rains and harsh droughts especially in the Eastern and North –Eastern Uganda.

 These changes demand for reliable water management, opening up irrigation schemes to ensure food security and productivity, effective and efficient use of water for energy and industry.

The climatic changes are mainly due to a scientifically proven concept of Global warming- the warming up of the earth’s surface through the greenhouse effect by increased levels of Carbon dioxide gas and other greenhouse gases like Methane and Nitrous oxide in the atmosphere. The gases trap the sun’s heat causing warming and this in itself results in climate change.

Available information shows that as early as 1896, Swedish scientist: Svante Arrhenius, first predicted how the increasing Carbon dioxide gas levels in the atmosphere were substantially altering the surface temperatures through the greenhouse effect. 

In 1938, Guy Callendar had concluded that the increase of Carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere had continued to cause global warming.

1988 was recorded as the hottest year on record with widespread drought and wildfires in the USA. The changes were mainly due to global warming.

The increase in the greenhouse gases was due to human activities namely:

  • Burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, gas for energy-responsible for 90 percent of Carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere.
  • Deforestation 
  •  Industrial emissions
  • Increased agriculture and livestock farming 
  • Waste and landfills.
  • Use of industrial chemicals.

Generally, 20 percent of global warming is a result of deforestation.

Most of us could remember what we were taught in a biology class: how green plants made the sugar that they need for energy and building other essential molecules by the chemical process known as PHOTOSYNTHESIS. During this process, green plants, algae and some types of bacteria trap the sunlight energy and use it with water and Carbon dioxide gas to form carbohydrates(sugars)  and release Oxygen, vital for the survival of life, as a by-product.

In this process, the plants remove the Carbon dioxide from the air while the Oxygen forms the ozone layer which protects living organisms from high –energy ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.

As the world’s population increases, more land is cleared of trees to create space for building houses, factories, commercial agriculture and as fuel for cooking and heating.

In Uganda, trees are cut down mainly for agricultural expansion and to use as firewood and charcoal-the main source of energy for most ordinary people. Forest reserves have been encroached upon.

As forest land is being converted for economic purposes, not many trees are being planted so this has led to fast accumulation of Carbon dioxide gas in the air leading to fast global warming.

https://www.climate.gov  claims that the earth’s temperature has risen by  an average of 0.06 degrees Celsius /0.11F per decade since 1850.

The main effects of climate change:

The increase in temperatures are causing ice sheets and glaciers to melt especially at the poles and has resulted in the rise of sea levels, floods and displacement of communities and the disruption of ecosystems.

Even the snow and glaciers on the Rwenzori Mountains known as the Mountains of the Moon at 5,109 metres and close to the Equator in Western Uganda, are progressively shrinking. Lake Victoria levels tend to be increasing more so during the short but heavier rainy periods.

I grew up in a green Kampala city, built on the traditional seven hills but now, when I walk in the city, I can easily count the trees standing! The oldest tree (70 years+) could be the Mvule tree at Namungoona opposite the Main Greek Orthodox Church along Hoima Road. 

 The seven hills have expanded to 22+ hills all covered by residential houses, hardly any green area.  

Deforestation and warm temperatures cause extreme weather patterns/events: flash floods and severe drought. Since the 1990s, Kampala has suffered flash floods which seem to be getting heavier over the years.

On the 26th March 2025, just after the searing heat of February, it took only two hours of relentless rain to flood the city and surrounding areas. The roads became impassable; the drainage channels were blocked. Movement had to be minimised for safety and by the end of day, seven people were reported dead and a lot of damage had been caused on property and businesses.

Other areas like Lugazi (about 46 kilometres east of Kampala) suffered floods too.

The rainy season has just begun. We all fear what could happen next as far as preparedness and response are concerned.

END OF PART 1

To be continued…….

QUESTION: 

How are you participating actively in stopping the polluting of the environment in your community?

A clean, safe environment starts with you and I.