Katakwi with a total population of more than 189,000 people has already registered a number of people unable to afford a single meal a day due to the COVID-19 lock down.
Katakwi district authorities
have cried out to the central government for food aid to citing several
calamities that have affected production.
Katakwi district has
been affected by desert locusts twice. It also suffers from
other calamities like flooding, excessive heat during drought and Karimojong
cattle raids.
According to the authorities, about half of the population in
urban centers is unable to access their gardens in the villages due to the
Covid19 lock down and new wave of attacks by the Karimojong along the border
areas.
Seraphine Alia, the Katakwi Chief Administrative
Officer told our reporter that close to 140,000 people in the district are
already vulnerable to hunger.
Katakwi with a total population of more than
189,000 people has already registered a number of people unable to afford a
single meal a day due to the COVID-19 lock down.
Walter Elakas, the Katakwi District Chairperson, says he has
written to the Office of the Prime Minister highlighting the plight of his
people.
Elakas notes that much as people are planting, the recent invasion
of locusts destroyed a few gardens of rice and millet in Toroma Sub County.
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Over the years, some communities in Katakwi have been
dependent on food donations from government due to floods and other calamities.
Last year, a number of farmers incurred losses when the area was battered by
torrential rains.
