Members of Parliament have urged government to invest more in disaster preparedness, irrigation and food reserves instead of repeatedly relying on emergency food relief, which they say is unsustainable.
The MPs made the call on Wednesday after the Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Mr Sam Engola, presented a statement to Parliament on the state of disasters and government interventions.
The statement was presented during a plenary sitting chaired by Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa.
Minister Engola said government is distributing relief food to 313,987 households in 480 parishes across the nine districts of Karamoja.
Each household is expected to receive 20 kilogrammes of maize flour and 10 kilogrammes of beans.
The intervention follows worsening food insecurity in Karamoja, where about 473,000 people are facing crisis-level food insecurity or worse, including 41,000 people classified as being in an emergency situation.
However, MPs said the continued distribution of relief food is only a temporary solution and called for measures that enable communities to produce their own food.
Adjumani District Woman MP Jesca Ababiku said government should prioritise irrigation to shield farmers from recurrent drought.
She also asked the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries to revive an abandoned irrigation programme in the district.
“The issue of irrigation is key. The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries did some site surveys in Adjumani District five years ago, but nothing has happened,” Ms Ababiku said.
She said drought had severely affected the district, including programmes under the Parish Development Model.
Napak District Woman MP Faith Nakut commended government for taking relief food directly to parishes but questioned how long the interventions could be sustained.
“Reports indicate that the food distributed is finished. Sustaining food relief is a difficult job,” Ms Nakut said.
She noted that government had allocated Shs45 billion to the current relief operation and questioned how similar interventions would be financed in future.
“That is why I ask for the support of farmers to grow their crops,” she said.
Ms Nakut also warned that the country could soon face flooding following the prolonged drought.
“We are battling with drought, what about flooding expected in weeks’ time? I implore government to deploy equipment for desilting. Let water move, otherwise this House will be burdened by many disaster-related requests,” she said.
Gulu City Woman MP Betty Aol Ocan called for the restoration of government food reserves to improve the country’s preparedness for disasters.
“We cannot wait for people to die in order to come to their rescue. There used to be silos—big government stores to keep food for help in times of disasters,” she said.
Moroto Municipality MP Francis Adome Lorika said about 2,000 households in his constituency had not received relief food.
He called for long-term interventions, including irrigation and planned resettlement of communities living in disaster-prone areas.
Meanwhile, government is developing an El Niño contingency plan following warnings of possible above-normal rainfall between September and December 2026.
Mr Engola said the plan will guide interventions before, during and after the El Niño rains, with key sectors including agriculture and food security, works and transport, and health.
Other measures include disseminating early warning messages on El Niño across sectors and requiring local governments to enforce environmental laws that prevent people from settling in disaster-prone areas.
