By Aggrey Baba
Government is set to spend an additional UGX8.87 billion to acquire 2,217.66 acres of land for the resettlement of households living in high-risk landslide areas of the Mount Elgon sub-region.
The additional funding was approved by Cabinet on October 5th, after the Office of the Prime Minister failed to secure sufficient land under an earlier UGX62bn Government programme intended to relocate people exposed to landslides and mudslides.
ICT and National Guidance Minister Justine Kasule Lumumba announced the decision on Tuesday at the Uganda Media Centre, saying the land earmarked for purchase had already been identified and subjected to due diligence.
She said the new intervention will specifically target households in mapped high-risk areas where communities face the threat of landslides, particularly during periods of heavy rainfall associated with El Nino conditions.
Under the approved arrangement, affected households will have two options.
Those opting for physical resettlement land will receive two acres, valued at UGX4m per acre, together with UGX10m to construct a house, making it UGX18 million in total for every household.
Alternatively, a household may choose to receive UGX8 million in cash in lieu of the land, alongside UGX10m for house construction. The minister said the current intervention is expected to cater for 1,4103 households identified as being in the high-risk category.
However, Government still faces a much larger resettlement bill.
She said another 10,558 households remain in high-risk areas and would require an estimated UGX190bn to be fully resettled.
Cabinet has consequently decided that the additional UGX190 billion required for the remaining households will be handled through a supplementary budget.
The resettlement programme comes as Government seeks to move communities away from areas identified as particularly vulnerable to mudslides and landslides in the Mount Elgon region, mostly Bududa District.
Lumumba said the Office of the Prime Minister will work with the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), local governments and Parish Development Model (PDM) structures to monitor the implementation of the programme and ensure that the resources are properly used, further revealing that an important condition will also accompany the resettlement.
Households that receive the settlement support will be required to hand over their former land to Government, after which it will become part of land managed by the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).(For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
