FOUR PEOPLE DIE, HOUSE HOLDS DISPLACED AS FLOODING HITS KASESE

Hundreds of Households in Kasese municipality have been displaced following the floods that resulted from River Nyamwamba that burst all its banks on Wednesday morning.

What was reported as the usual over flooding of the River that have taken lives of many people every rainy season turned into an incident that cannot be recalled by people who have lived in Kasese town over time.

Most of the affected places are almost the whole of Nyamwamba and Bulembia divisions that are crossed by the River Nyamwamba. The areas affected most include Kilembe valley, Acholi Quarters, Kizungu, Nyakasanga, Base Camp, Kanyangeya and Kamuliquizi.

Due the problem, the traffic was affected along the Kasese-Fort Portal road whereby there was no vehicle entering Kasese town from Fort Portal and vice versa after the water cut of the road at Nyakasanga about 200 meters from the Kasese airfield.

Hundreds of people were stranded on either side of the road including Kasese woman MP Ms. Winfred Kiiza who was returning to the constituency from Kampala. Police took control of the situation by blocking vehicles from risking the water.

Unconfirmed reports from Kilembe valley indicated that the former procurement Officer of Kasese district Mr. Paddy Karusu and another man should have died a house that collapsed when they were trying to rescue shop goods in Kanyaruboga area.

The District councilor for Kilembe sub-county Mr. Emmanual Kaghuma says that water hit the house in which Mr. Karusu was operating a retail shop along the Kasese-Kilembe road which collapsed immediately and nobody could access the house several houses after the incident.

“The people who were near the house say Karusu and another man said to be a teacher an Nganki primary school were trying to rescue the good from his shop when floods overpowered his house which collapsed on them there and then. Chances of survival are very minimal” Mr. Kaghuma said.

The heavy down pour that also destructed the Kasese district Labour Day celebrations in Hima town council has forced most of the downstream rivers to over flood right away from the Rwenzori Mountains to the lakes.

In Kilembe, two bridges that connect the nearby villages to Kilembe town have been washed away while the bridge that connects Kyalhumba to Kisinga sub-county has also collapsed.

The management of Kilembe hospital reportedly discharged all the patients that were admitted to hospital after it was also flooded even in the wards. An eye witness says, the patients with their care givers were seen climbing uphills to the nearby villages to get out of the fateful valley.

Daily Monitor could not verify the reports since none of the administrators at the hospital was available by press time. However, eye witnesses saw the staff quarters at Kilembe Hospital having been flooded with one of the medical workers who climbed a tree stranded until 5pm when he was rescued from the river.

The electricity power in the whole of Kasese town was cut off following the floods that raided peoples’ houses posing a risk of a fire outbreak.

One of the people, whose houses have collapsed Mr. Geofrey Kamalha of Saluti B village in Kasese town, says he found when there was nothing to save from the building because everything had been taken away by the water.

“ I was not there when the house collapsed and there was nobody else because we had all gone to work. This house is a big loss to me because their no way I can renovate as everything is down. This is a big loss”.

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