The more the Lake Albert water continues flooding, the more the biting financial crunch hits hard Persons with Disability (PWDs) in Buliisa District.
As it is a tradition for most Lakers to engage in fishing activity, some of the PWDs along the shoreline also followed into their ancestral footsteps as the rest took to other businesses in the vicinity.
Besides the flood, Covid-19 has also disrupted the PWDs’ livelihood, making their life intricate at this time when their children in candidate classes have gone back to school.
Meeting their domestic necessities has also become difficult since their income earning projects have been disrupted.
The Buliisa District Councillor for PWDs, Mr Julius Manyireki, said some of the PWDs were earning from fishing and some small projects by the road side but since Lake Albert flooded the entire area, businesses came to a halt.
As such, he urged the government to consider initiating a special grant for them so they can wade through this double tragedy.
“Since most of the PWDs cannot afford to service loans at this time when their businesses have been affected by Lake Albert floods and Covid-19, government should establish a special fund for them to help solve their financial problems,” he said while talking to Kazi-njema News at Buliisa district headquarters.
“PWDs have toiled looking for survival with this Covid-19 era but have totally failed since there is no project established by government that can help them solve their problems,” he added.
The politician’s statement comes few days after the Lakers urged the government to intervene after being hit by flood of Lake Albert.
Last week, Members of Parliament from Buliisa asked government to declare the district as disaster hit in need of special consideration.
They want a special fund secured to facilitate among others, a relocation of the affected residents to non waterlogged areas.
Thousands of homesteads have been affected by the flooding of Lake Albert in Bunyoro and Rwenzori sub-regions.
Districts affected include Buliisa, Hoima, Kikuube and Kagadi in Bunyoro and Ntoroko in Rwenzori respectively.
Recently, Mr Jaconius Musingwire, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) manager western region predicted that the water of Lake Albert will continue swelling up to where it originally was adding that the only option is for the displaced people to continue being resettled.
