Operationalise disaster strategy, EA council told

he East African Community (EAC) Council of Ministers has been urged to operationalise the disaster reduction and management strategy.

This was among recommendations in a report tabled on Thursday at the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) meeting by the Committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources.

The report, which received majority support from members of the Eala during discussions, came up after the committee held a workshop on the matter in June this year in Nairobi, Kenya.

The workshop focused on forestry and climate change and considered the role of agriculture, forestry and other land uses in mitigating climate change and providing critical information to the members.

But, the debate on the report stopped for about 15 minutes after one of the members raised a point of order over lack of quorum for the assembly to continue with its business for the day.

The rules require that there should be at least three members from each member state of the EAC, but there were only two members from Rwanda,. The situation forced Eala Speaker Margaret Zziwa to stop the session for about 15 minutes until two other members from Rwanda came in.

The session resumed. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda each had seven members while Burundi had six and Rwanda four.

When presenting the report, committee chairperson Isabelle Ndahayo said the committee acknowledged that over 70 per cent of natural disasters in the region were climate-related and that the greatest impacts of climate change were evidenced in form of climatic disasters including floods and drought. She said illegal logging of timber was a major cause of deforestation.

The Citizen

UM– USEKE.RW