Early warning along River Manafwa: Reading the river before it rises
Moses Were is one of the community volunteers helping people in Doho Village monitor River Manafwa, observe changing water levels, and share warning information with nearby households before flooding becomes severe.
Moses Were is one of the community volunteers helping people in Doho Village monitor River Manafwa, observe changing water levels, and share warning information with nearby households before flooding becomes severe.
Whenever heavy rains hit the highlands of Bududa and Mbale districts, Moses Were keeps an eye on River Manafwa.
River Manafwa, which flows from Mount Elgon through Bududa, Manafwa, Mbale and into Butaleja, has a long history of recurring floods caused by heavy rainfall, landslides, and environmental degradation in the Elgon region.
Recurring floods have left a “trail of destruction” for communities living along the river due to loss of lives, displacement of people, destruction of infrastructure and economic hardship.
For years, communities living along River Manafwa experienced recurring flooding with limited warning. Floods often caught families by surprise, spilling into homes and gardens, destroying crops, displacing families and, sometimes, taking lives.
Moses Were with the village disaster management committee beside the river gauge at River Manafwa
“We used to wait for floods to come and then run,” Moses recalls quietly. “Sometimes people lost everything before help arrived.”
Today, standing beside a river gauge installed in Doho Village, Moses takes regular readings of water levels. What once felt unpredictable now carries signs the community has learned to understand.
Through the EU Humanitarian Aid funded Early Warning; Early Action project, implemented by Oxfam, Uganda Red Cross Society, Moses and other members of the Village Disaster Management Committee were trained to monitor flood risks, organize community response, and act before danger escalates.
The river gauge, which may appear simple at first glance, has become one of their most trusted tools.
“When the water reaches a certain level, we already know what it means,” he says. “We do not wait anymore. We begin warning people”
Those warnings move quickly. Through megaphones introduced by the project, volunteers move through the village alerting households to prepare.
Community radio is used to spread messages even further, alerting community members of possible flooding and urging families to move children, older people, pregnant women, persons with disabilities and livestock to safer places before flooding occurs.
For Moses, the biggest difference has been how the community now approaches preparedness and responds to flood risks.
“We understood that during floods, the first thing is to save lives and prepare early. That understanding has changed us”
Moses Were with the community members placing soil around the edges of the riverbanks of River Manafwa
The village disaster committees now do much more than issue warnings. Equipped with phones, volunteers document flood impacts in real time and send information and images to local leaders and response partners, helping support arrive faster.
Additionally, the community members have also taken part in a number of preparedness activities themselves.
When floodwaters threatened to break through vulnerable sections of the riverbank, the locals in Doho village mobilized with hoes, wheelbarrows, and sandbags and worked to reinforce weak points to stop water from spilling into homes and gardens.
Through collective action, community members have also formed savings groups under the project, where members set aside funds for emergencies
Moses Were meets with his savings group, where members contribute funds for disaster preparedness and response
When one section of the river needed urgent widening, community members pooled their savings and hired a tractor to strengthen embankments and improve water flow.
“That was our own money,” Moses says. “We did not wait for someone else. We acted.”
Today, preparedness activities in Doho often begin before the river reaches dangerous levels. It can be seen in the river gauge readings taken each day, in warnings carried across villages, in strengthened embankments along River Manafwa, and in the growing involvement of community members who now take a more active role in reducing flood risks and protecting their households.
Across the project area, four river gauges have been installed to support local flood monitoring and early warning activities. Through trained volunteers, disaster committees, and community structures, early warning information is now reaching approximately 120,000 people across flood-prone communities.
About the project: With funding from the European Union Humanitarian Aid, Oxfam in consortium with Caritas Tororo and Uganda Redcross Society (URCS) are implementing the Early Warning Early Action, Strengthening Multi-Hazard Disaster Preparedness in Mt Elgon Subregion project to enhance community resilience to shocks and stresses through effective and participatory multi-hazard anticipatory action and Preparedness measures.