export_ofoct.com
[00:00.44] Paradise in peril. As the world battles a pandemic, large swaths of the African continent have been submerged by floods.
[00:08.16] This is the scene in the eastern Ugandan city of Jinja along the shores of lake Victoria.
[00:13.72] Since march flooding has left more than 400 people dead in east Africa.
[00:18.24] In Uganda catholic relief services estimates that as many as 580 000 people are affected,
[00:23.55] from nice lakeshore homes in Kampala to small farms along the Kenya border.
[00:28.87] And you're a smallholder farmer who normally benefits from farming on a riverbank.
[00:34.97] And suddenly there's this raging flash flood that comes down the hills and mountains, because of this very intense rainfall, you know, you lose everything.
[00:42.15] In the town of Jinja, radio host and environmental activist John Hillary says flooding doesn't just destroy homes, it ruins the very fabric that holds society together.
[00:51.97] The public hospital, the only public hospital in the Chilean region, you know completely destroyed.
[00:58.35] So people, as a result of the floods, got sick, but they could not get anywhere else to go to, because the hospital had been destroyed.
[01:07.65] De Goeij says heavy rainfall is normal in east Africa. What isn't is the frequency and intensity seen lately.
[01:14.02] He says Uganda is facing a triple threat that's making it even harder for groups to help.
[01:19.07] We have the locusts, we have all the floods, and then on top of everything else, we have go with 19.
[01:27.30] And so it's been, for the affected people, it's been an especially hard year you know to be on the lockdown and be affected by floods,
[01:40.05] and then because of the lockdown, accessing the support and the relief that they are entitled to.
[01:42.44] Hillary who has a radio show speaks often about climate change. He grew up on a farm, so for him this is personal.
[01:48.55] Over time we have noticed the tab because of what I think is negligence we have done.
[01:56.25] We've been involved in practices that have completely destroyed our rain cycle. Our climate is deteriorating every other day.
[02:04.22] I'm only 26. I have seen over time weather deteriorating. I don't want to see the same for my children.
[02:11.74] This he says is a living nightmare. This is his home and he wants future generations to see its beauty, too.
