FDC tells West Nile NRM government is their problem 

Adjumani |Engineer Patrick Oboi Amuriat, president of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), has criticized the NRM government for failing to address flood concerns in West Nile.

Floods are currently causing problems and will have a negative impact on the economic development of districts along the Nile Basin.

Amuriat was in Adjumani for the thanksgiving ceremony of Tadrupapasi Patrick, the FDC party’s flag bearer for the 2021 election.

Tadrupapasi lost the election for the Adjumani West MP seat to General Moses Ali, who also serves as the Second Deputy Prime Minister.

Oboi told West Nile that Uganda has abundant resources, including legal frameworks, but the current government is deliberately suffocating citizens by failing to address annual flooding changes.

Hassan Kaps Fungaro, FDC party vice president for Northern Uganda, cited a lack of political will to push the West Nile development agenda.

“It’s not that NRM and Mr. Museveni does not know that floods is going to come next year, they know but because we have in Kampala the government that does not care about the people,” he said.

“This is serious problem especially to the districts neibhouring the Nile Basin in West Nile. This is a total failure on the part of the government; total failure by representatives of the people who are the voice of the people of West Nile.”

Local action 

On Tuesday, the Obongi town council in Obongi district proposed a supplementary budget of more than shs146 billion for the relocation of government infrastructure as a result of the negative effects of heavy flooding in the Nile River.

According to the president of the FDC party, many West Nile communities are suffering from extreme poverty as a result of disasters such as drought and flooding.

He claimed that the government cannot provide mechanisms for tapping into the Nile’s irrigation system.

“We in the FDC party have plan for twining the Nile River, dredging of the river so that the water flows faster.”

Oboi also stated that FDC intends to work on the drainage system to ensure that water flows freely, manage the disposal of solid waste, particularly plastics that have caused flogging or even blockage of the drainage system, and implement an early warning mechanism.

“The five districts in West Nile along the Nile Basin including Obongi, Adjumani, Moyo, Madi Okollo and Pakwach have faced adverse food insecurity, adject poverty and consequent malnutrition due to annual disasters,” Kaps said.