Building a Disaster-Resilient Uganda: Why the Next Rainy Season Must Mark a Shift from "Emergency Response to Risk Reduction".

By Albinious Twesigomwe. As Uganda approaches another rainy season, one question should occupy the minds of every policymaker, emergency responder, development partner, local leader and citizen: Are we prepared? The answer will determine whether the coming months are remembered for effective preparedness or for yet another cycle of preventable deaths, destroyed homes and businesses, damaged infrastructure, and shattered livelihoods. Ugandas experience over the last decade demonstrates that while heavy rainfall is a natural phenomenon, disasters are not. Floods, landslides, urban inundation and infrastructure failures become catastrophes when human vulnerability outpaces investments in disaster risk reduction. Rapid urbanisation, environmental degradation, weak