KAMPALA, 14 May 2008 (IRIN) - Home to about 1.1 million people, Karamoja in northeastern Uganda is a harsh, semi-arid region largely inhabited by agro-pastoralists, with the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the country, and the lowest life expectancy.

In a January to April situation report, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said part of the problem was the increasing impact of climate change across Karamoja.

"Whereas in the 1980s and early 1990s the severe drought cycle was every 10 years, at present droughts are coming every two to three years, while 2006 and 2007 saw back-to-back years of extended dry spells," it said.

In the second half of 2007, food availability was further affected by unusually heavy rains, which damaged crops, and outbreaks of diseases, which decimated sorghum and millet harvests. Another disease has affected goats.

"Life in Karamoja ... is defined by periodic and extended droughts, sporadic and often brutal violence, cyclical cattle raiding and chronic food insecurity," the Feinstein International Centre at Tufts University stated after a study in December.

In a report, Angering Akuju: Survival and suffering in Karamoja, the centre said erratic weather patterns were common in the region.

According to OCHA, visible signs of malnutrition have been recorded among the population in parts of Lokupoi Parish and Nabwal resettlement area, Moroto District.

The region is also affected by insecurity and ongoing forced disarmament by government soldiers.

"The limited reach of state authority and basic services leaves the region without effective rule of law and a civilian judicial system, without access to appropriate primary and secondary education and without access to healthcare, clean drinking water and basic sanitation," OCHA noted.

"In the absence of these basic services, sustainable development is practically unachievable," it added. "At the current rate of progress, Karamoja will not attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015."

Investing in education

The government is answering one concern - the region has the lowest school enrolment rates in Uganda - by improving education facilities in the remote area, a senior official said.

"The average primary-school enrolment in this region is estimated to be between 20 and 22 percent," Aston Kajara, state minister for Karamoja, told IRIN on 14 May. "The girl child primary-school enrolment is even worse than that.

"We are currently scheduled to embark on a 24 billion shillings [US$14.4 million] programme that will see the upgrading of 13 education institutions in this region to improve available education facilities," the minister added.

"We are also contemplating a programme to open boarding schools in the region and we are currently engaged, along with our development partners, in mobilising the community in a go-back-to-school [project]."

According to the minister, another programme worth 450 billion shillings ($281 million) has been designed to develop infrastructure. "We want to further invest in infrastructure development like roads, income-generating activities and water and sanitation because these sectors are in a dire state," he said.

Sanitation was particularly poor because latrine coverage was very low in the entire region. "In Moroto [town] where I am now, the coverage is a mere 4 percent [and this] seems to be the same case in other areas in the region.

"This can be attributed to the nature of life these people lead. To some extent they are so mobile that they do not see a reason to use latrines, but the orientation, the thinking and attitudes are also to blame," he added.

"We need to remember that this place has for long been neglected."

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