KASESE – Kasese District leaders have relocated Kilembe Mines Hospital from Kilembe Sub County to a new home after it was destroyed by devastating floods last week.
Mr. Onesmus B. Kibaya, the hospital administrator, said that the facility will now be housed at St. Michael Day Care and Nursery School and the Kasese Catholic Social Centre.
“We shall operate fully since the diocese has allocated us the facilities to use. We are now trying to organize the place so that we can start full operations,” Mr. Kibaya said on Tuesday.
Kilembe mines hospital is managed by a joint partnership of Kasese catholic diocese, Kilembe mines copper limited and government of Uganda.
He noted that the facility will operate without placenta pits, incinerators and standby generators that were washed away by floods saying that soon everything would be fixed.
Kasese Municipality mayor, Mr. Godfrey Kabbyanga said Kilembe mines hospital is no more after all buildings were washed away, medical stores gone leaving the management with no option apart from shifting.
He warned all the people of Kilembe and the entire Nyamwamba valley that stretches to Nykasanga in Kasese town to shift since the place is a water way and has been proved inhabitable due to floods.
“We have told the people to leave Kilembe and Nyamwamba valley alone to safer places and we are going to enforce the law” he noted.
The flood water that swept away homes in Kilembe Sub County, Kasese District, last week also submerged Kilembe Mines Hospital, leading to the death of a patient who was on oxygen.
Dr Edward Wafula, the Hospital Medical Superintendent, said that water swept away the mortuary and the children ward.
He said over 200 patients were still stuck in some parts of the hospital.
Most parts of Nyamwamba and Bulembia Division in Kasese Municipality were flooded after River Nyamwamba burst its banks at about midnight following torrential rains that pounded the Rwenzori mountain rangers.
Other rivers that also burst their banks wrecking havoc downstream are, Nyamugasani, Mubuku, Ssebwe, Rwimi and a number of streams across the district.
The State Minister for Disaster and Preparedness, Mr Musa Ecweru, was on Thursday, May 7, 2020 shocked at the trail of destruction left behind by the floods that pounded Kasese District.