Schools close as floods submerge classrooms

Flash floods from Lake Victoria have submerged classrooms at Kamuwunga Primary School in Lwera, Kalungu District, forcing the school to close prematurely for the first term holiday.

Mr John Mutagubya, the chairperson of the School Management Committee, said the lake burst its banks in the area due to increased water levels on the lake shores, submerging classrooms and many houses at the Kamuwunga Landing Site.

Both farmers and sand miners in Lwera dug trenches in the spacious swamp that connects directly to Lake Victoria and this is partly blamed for the current flooding in the area.

He said the school classrooms are on the verge of collapsing and if floods continue, pit-latrines will also get submerged posing a serious health problem.

Currently, the school compound is covered with flood water and to access the classrooms, one has to use a boat.

The school has a total of 300 pupils.

“We have decided to prematurely close the term to save the lives of learners and teachers. The learners will be invited at a later date to sit their end-of-term exams from St Peters Kamuwunga Catholic Church, which is safer,” he said during at the weekend.

The school term is supposed to close on May 3.

Mr Gerald Kiggundu, the Kalungu District vice chairperson, said the district is financially constrained and cannot help the school.

“What is much needed now is digging trenches that can shield the school from flooding, but we cannot do this as a district due to our small resource envelope,” he said.

This is the third time in one year that residents at Kamuwunga are suffering a similar disaster.

Recent case

In May last year, hundreds of households in Kamuwunga were displaced after their houses got submerged in water. In January, of the same year, houses in the area got submerged in water and the affected resident’s relocated to safer places such as Nabyewanga in Mpigi District and Lukaya Town Council in Kalungu District.

In June 2020, Kamuwunga Primary School also flooded forcing the management to suspend lessons for several weeks. Lwera swamp stretches about 20kms on the Kampala–Masaka highway, and is a major water catchment area that connects several rivers and wetlands in Gomba, Mpigi and Kalungu districts and drains directly into Lake Victoria.