By Ebenezer T. Bifubyeka,
Mbarara, W. Uganda.
FOR the third time in three years, hailstorm has hit the same spot in Bubaare sub-county, Kashari in Mbarara, destroying many plantations. Worse still, it has exacerbated the famine threat!
The hailstorm hit the parishes of Kamushooko and Mugarusya on Monday - the 24th of March, 2008. The one-hour hailstorm destroyed gardens of bananas, beans and cassava.
The area LC1II chairperson, Cadre Robert Kanene said that on February 25, 2005, the storm hit the area, in mid July 2007, it hit again and now it has hit the same area again!
“I appeal to the government, district leaders and the micro-finance institutions to intervene and assist the affected people. They are in a desperate situation because most of them have back loans,” Kanene revealed on Wednesday, with water-logged eyes.
He said the affected people borrowed loans from some microfinance institutions after the previous hailstorms; and they were still paying back – using sales from their harvests.
One widow in the area, Joyce Kantogoro, 85, who is looking after 20 orphans, is complaining about how she would pay back the bank loan without commercial harvests!
“These are children of my late sons and daughters. I took a loan to pay for their school fees – hoping to sell bunch of bananas and pay back. Now the plantation has been destroyed; I don’t know what to next,” she said, wearing a visible miserable face!
Why is this area often hit by hailstorms? Is due to environmental degradation?
Joveline Katanda believes that this area is often hit by hailstorms because of spirits. She said the former Bachwezi owners, did not want cultivators to utilise that land!
On contrary, the western regional public awareness officer in national environmental management authority (NEMA), Jeconious Musingwire refutes this belief with a scientific explanation:
“The major cause of the hailstorm on that spot is a cyclone that has heavey wet moisture from the river line wetland - running from Nakivale to Kashaka and the Nyakisharara wind breeze that transverse the dry wind in the grazing area with minimum tree cover.”
Musingwire said that as the wind breeze converges at the ridges of the hill tops of Kashaka and Bubaare and cools fast. “And since River Rwizi valley breeze has heavey moisture content through the cyclones, the rain droplets fall in form of hailstorms that destroy crops and properties,” he added.
“As a remedy, there is need for wind-breakers (trees) on all raised hills to always divert the wind breeze upwards to the atmosphere. This will let the heavy clouds intercept at a higher altitude and disperse the wind further thus reducing on its hazardous,” he said.
Meanwhile, Musingwire appealed to the meteologists to study the weather patterns of Kashaka area and the defined periods of the hailstorms and suggest solutions accordingly.
I am therefore convinced that we are responsible for the hailstorms at Kashaka zone because we have harvested all the trees on the hilltops and lowlands – leaving no reserve to reduce the speed of the wind.
The solution lies in our hands: let’s plant trees – just plant the trees! At least each family should have a garden of trees or some trees in the compound. Then government should invest money for covering hilltops and plain lowlands with trees – as an emergency.
Ends.
Word count: 556.
Mbarara, W. Uganda.
FOR the third time in three years, hailstorm has hit the same spot in Bubaare sub-county, Kashari in Mbarara, destroying many plantations. Worse still, it has exacerbated the famine threat!
The hailstorm hit the parishes of Kamushooko and Mugarusya on Monday - the 24th of March, 2008. The one-hour hailstorm destroyed gardens of bananas, beans and cassava.
The area LC1II chairperson, Cadre Robert Kanene said that on February 25, 2005, the storm hit the area, in mid July 2007, it hit again and now it has hit the same area again!
“I appeal to the government, district leaders and the micro-finance institutions to intervene and assist the affected people. They are in a desperate situation because most of them have back loans,” Kanene revealed on Wednesday, with water-logged eyes.
He said the affected people borrowed loans from some microfinance institutions after the previous hailstorms; and they were still paying back – using sales from their harvests.
One widow in the area, Joyce Kantogoro, 85, who is looking after 20 orphans, is complaining about how she would pay back the bank loan without commercial harvests!
“These are children of my late sons and daughters. I took a loan to pay for their school fees – hoping to sell bunch of bananas and pay back. Now the plantation has been destroyed; I don’t know what to next,” she said, wearing a visible miserable face!
Why is this area often hit by hailstorms? Is due to environmental degradation?
Joveline Katanda believes that this area is often hit by hailstorms because of spirits. She said the former Bachwezi owners, did not want cultivators to utilise that land!
On contrary, the western regional public awareness officer in national environmental management authority (NEMA), Jeconious Musingwire refutes this belief with a scientific explanation:
“The major cause of the hailstorm on that spot is a cyclone that has heavey wet moisture from the river line wetland - running from Nakivale to Kashaka and the Nyakisharara wind breeze that transverse the dry wind in the grazing area with minimum tree cover.”
Musingwire said that as the wind breeze converges at the ridges of the hill tops of Kashaka and Bubaare and cools fast. “And since River Rwizi valley breeze has heavey moisture content through the cyclones, the rain droplets fall in form of hailstorms that destroy crops and properties,” he added.
“As a remedy, there is need for wind-breakers (trees) on all raised hills to always divert the wind breeze upwards to the atmosphere. This will let the heavy clouds intercept at a higher altitude and disperse the wind further thus reducing on its hazardous,” he said.
Meanwhile, Musingwire appealed to the meteologists to study the weather patterns of Kashaka area and the defined periods of the hailstorms and suggest solutions accordingly.
I am therefore convinced that we are responsible for the hailstorms at Kashaka zone because we have harvested all the trees on the hilltops and lowlands – leaving no reserve to reduce the speed of the wind.
The solution lies in our hands: let’s plant trees – just plant the trees! At least each family should have a garden of trees or some trees in the compound. Then government should invest money for covering hilltops and plain lowlands with trees – as an emergency.
Ends.
Word count: 556.
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