Assessing the level of schools' exposure to landslide disasters in Bududa and Manafwa Districts

Abstract

Landslides are a common phenomenon in Uganda especially on mountain Elgon slopes in Eastern Uganda and poses great risks to numerous schools particularly in Bududa and Manafwa districts. The general objective of the study was to contribute knowledge for policy formulation on school preparedness to landslide risk in the Bududa and Manafwa district. This study adopted a cross-sectional design; teachers were selected using simple proportionate sampling from the lists of teachers obtained from the head teacher’s offices. Data was collected using questionnaires administered directly to 152 teachers and 50 head-teachers from 50 schools purposively sampled. Key Informant interviews were administered to the District Education Officer, District Inspector of Schools, Environment Officer, and Local Council Chairman of Bududa and Manafwa districts. Finally, a group of learners and parents/ guardians were engaged in a Focused Group Discussion. Spatial data were analyzed using Arc GIS version 10.5 to determine the susceptibility of the area to landslide disaster. The level of preparedness and perceptions of school management towards landslide disaster mitigation was analyzed using Stata version 15. Results indicate that schools highly exposed to landslide disasters constituted of 37%, whereas 34% were at moderate and 29 at low exposure. Bukalasi sub-county, which has the highest number of learners (1381), highly exposed to landslide disasters followed by Bulecheke sub-county (543). Schools in Buwangani Town council, Kaato, and Wesswa were least exposed to landslide disasters because the majority of the school population were located in areas categorized as low susceptibility. The level of preparedness of schools to landslide disaster was at 16.4% while unpreparedness was at 83.6%. Nearly half of the teachers (45%) had positive perceptions/ attitudes towards landslide disaster preparedness and mitigation. The perception of the school management towards landslide disaster mitigation was significantly associated with gender (P-value 0.039) and duration at the current school (P-value 0.039). The study found out that there was limited landslide disaster preparedness measures on the ground as tree planting was the most common practice. Therefore the Ministry of Education and Sports should ensure that there is sufficient training of learners and teachers on landslide disaster preparedness and mitigation measures.