Author Profile

Doreen Tuhebwe

https://musph.ac.ug/

Affiliation: Department of Health Policy, Planning & Management, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

I hold a Master’s Degree in Public Health (MPH), currently a field coordinator for the Master of Public Health training program at the Department of Health Policy Planning & Management and an Instructional Materials Designer and trainer at Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH). I have expertise in field epidemiology, research methods, disaster risk management, management and development programming.

Recent Posts

The Most Effective Methods for Delivering Severe Weather Early Warnings to Fishermen on Lake Victoria

·

Introduction: It is estimated that five thousand people die on Lake Victoria every year by drowning which is triggered by severe weather hazards like lightning.

Objectives:  In order to improve predictability of severe weather conditions on Lake Victoria, there is need to deliver timely and effective Severe Weather Early Warning Systems (SWEWS) to those at risk. On Lake Victoria, previous SWEW service trials ceased with the end of the funding grants. This study therefore assessed the possibility of sustaining the SWEW service by assessing willingness to pay.  

Methods: An assessment was conducted between March and May 2015 to determine the SWEW service improvements desired by the population. A convenience sample of respondents was gathered and interviewed during impromptu visits to landing sites on Lake Victoria. The respondents were also among community members that had earlier participated in a pilot assessing the feasibility of mobile phones is delivering SWEW alerts.  Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to fishermen and fisher folks at the landing site to gather suggestions/strategies for (i) better design and implementation of SWEW service, (ii) use of smart phones, and (iii) their ability and willingness to pay for a SWEW service. Results were presented as frequencies.

Results: Two hundred fifteen respondents from fourteen landing sites (communities) were interviewed. Over 50% of the respondents (113/215) were aware about at least one community member who had been injured due to lightening on the lake in the past year. Ninety two percent (198/215) of the respondents reported using mobile phones as their main tool of communication but only 4% had smart phones that could receive early warning weather alerts through internet connectivity. Seventy five percent of respondents said they would welcome a system that could deliver commercial weather alerts and 65% were willing to pay for such a service.  

Conclusions: A SWEW service is feasible in this community but must be accompanied with public education on risk, a design that can fit the basic phone functionality and a system that the community majority will be willing to pay for on a continuing basis as a sustainability plan/strategy for an early warning system. This will enable timely dissemination of severe weather alerts and reduce risk of drowning on lakes among fishing communities. 

Coping Strategies for Landslide and Flood Disasters: A Qualitative Study of Mt. Elgon Region, Uganda

·

Introduction: The occurrence of landslides and floods in East Africa has increased over the past decades with enormous Public Health implications and massive alterations in the lives of those affected. In Uganda, the Elgon region is reported to have the highest occurrence of landslides and floods making this area vulnerable. This study aimed at understanding both coping strategies and the underlying causes of vulnerability to landslides and floods in the Mt. Elgon region.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative study in three districts of Bududa, Manafwa and Butalejja in the Mt. Elgon region in eastern Uganda. Six Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and eight Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) were conducted. We used trained research assistants (moderator and note taker) to collect data. All discussions were audio taped, and were transcribed verbatim before analysis. We explored both coping strategies and underlying causes of vulnerability. Data were analysed using latent content analysis; through identifying codes from which basis categories were generated and grouped into themes.

Results: The positive coping strategies used to deal with landslides and floods included adoption of good farming methods, support from government and other partners, livelihood diversification and using indigenous knowledge in weather forecasting and preparedness. Relocation was identified as unsustainable because people often returned back to high risk areas. The key underlying causes of vulnerability were; poverty, population pressure making people move to high risk areas, unsatisfactory knowledge on disaster preparedness and, cultural beliefs affecting people’s ability to cope.

Conclusion: This study revealed that deep rooted links to poverty, culture and unsatisfactory knowledge on disaster preparedness were responsible for failure to overcome the effects to landslides and floods in disaster prone communities of Uganda. However, good farming practices and support from the government and implementation partners were shown to be effective in enabling the community to lessen the negative effects disasters. This calls for high impact innovative interventions focused in addressing these underlying causes as well as involvement of all stakeholders in scaling the effective coping strategies in order to build resilience in this community and other similarly affected areas.

Key words: Coping, Underlying causes, Floods, Landslides, Mt. Elgon, Uganda