As the country mourns, this tragedy should be a lesson especially to the political leadership. They must re-evaluate the country's capacity to respond to disasters such as landslides and floods that are likely to be part of us for a foreseeable period as the effects of climate change take their toll.
The death toll from the Bududa disaster would have been avoided if the Government and district officials had implemented 1997 plan to resettle the Mt. Elgon forest reserve encroachers.
According to the 2002, Census Report Mbale district had a population density 534 people for every square kilometer which is four times the national average.
The Uganda Wild Life Authority says the landslide was triggered by human activity on the protected area. This is one of the most densely populated and fertile area in Uganda. In addressing the disaster the policy makers will need to seriously look at the population explosion and also consider early warning disaster alerts.
The meteorology department last October warned of calamities like landslides and flooding resulting from the effects of global warming. They went as far as listing all the districts that would receive excessive rainfall. It warned that heavy rains resulting from El Nino would wreck havoc in mountainous areas and in particular, singled out Mt. Elgon region. What more warnings did we need to know that the Bududa incident was a tragedy in waiting? We should have taken these warnings seriously.
Since disasters are here to stay, the country should strengthen the disaster response and management system to be more pro-active other than heavily relying on humanitarian agencies. At the moment, it appears we have learnt little from previous disasters.