But this isn’t just an issue of too much rain.
Uganda has a power problem. Two of its biggest plants, the 180-megawatt Nalubaale and 200-megawatt Kiira plants outside Jinga, are being battered by rising flood waters and floating papyrus.
The story of that moment started six months earlier, in October, when it started raining in Uganda. It hasn’t stopped since. Lake Victoria’s levels have risen by 1.3m and are just 8cm away from their highest-ever level. Similar downpours filled the lake in the early 1960s and mid 1990s. detailing the government response, Uganda’s water and environment minister, Sam Cheptoris, said a loss of forest cover as well as encroachment on wetlands and river banks meant that there was more silt in the lake and fewer natural barriers to fast-flowing flood waters. Towns and roads also mean more cement and tar, so rainwater doesn’t soak into the ground and instead goes straight into rivers.
Cheptoris noted that drinking water and sanitation systems have also been affected by the deluge, with a likely increase in water-borne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, malaria and bilharzia.
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