Farmers from 10 villages in Ntoroko District, who were rendered homeless by floods, are stranded with more than 40,000 herd of cattle for a week now.
The farmers have nowhere to graze their animals following last week’s incident, where River Semliki burst its banks, leaving grazing farms flooded.
The floods also displaced about 600 people and by Monday, the water levels had started to recede, but their homes were inhabitable.
Many residents are still staying in rented premises in Rwamabale, Kisege, Kibuuku and Karugutu trading centres.
The most affected are sub-counties of Bweramule, Butungama and parts of Rwebisengo.
Some cattle are malnourished while others have rotting hooves. The cattle keepers are also unable to milk the cattle, which has affected their income.
Mr James Mugisa, a cattle keeper from Kyobe Village, said their animals have not been feeding well for the past week.
“Our request to the government is to allow us graze on Semliki game reserve for a few months until the situation normalises,” he said.
He added: “Our biggest fear is that some of the animals are now infected with some diseases and soon we shall have an outbreak of strange diseases.”
The district authorities said they do not have free land to offer the cattle keepers and other displaced people temporarily.
The district production officer, Dr Patrick Businge, said the affected people will have to wait until water levels reduce.
“A single sub-county of Bweramule has more than 20,000 herd of cattle and all herdsmen are stranded,” he said.
The affected are from 10 villages including Kayanja 2, Kayanja 3, Kyobe, Masaka, Karugaju, Budiba, Masojo, Rukora, Kiraga, and some villages in parts of Butungama and Rwebisengo sub-counties.
Mr William Kasoro, the district chairperson, said all toilets collapsed and this has posed a health threat to residents.
“Very soon we shall have an outbreak of cholera because all our water points in flooded areas are now contaminated with faecal matter, people will start suffering from Bilharzia and malaria. We request the Ministry of Health to send us cholera vaccines,” he said.
He said the district only had three mobile toilets.
The acting district health officer, Dr Wilson Rude, asked residents to boil water and sleep under treated mosquito nets to avoid malaria.
“These floods are exposing our population to health risks such as malaria which will result in a surge in malaria cases, we shall have an increase in diarrhea cases, typhoid because toilets were submerged and people are using the same for domestic use which is dangerous,” he said.
