The dreadful tragedies of eight
school children killed and 23 injured by lightning in one incident in Uganda on
July 24 and the two school children killed in Kenya this week remind us of the
thousands of people who are killed every year across Africa by lightning and
other weather hazards. The African
Centres for Lightning and Electromagnetics (ACLE) headquartered at Makerere
University Business School was formed to decrease these tragedies by giving
public safety and injury prevention education, mounting warning systems,
providing graduate education to train lightning and weather experts for Africa,
pressing for lightning protection in schools and other vital public buildings, training
lightning protection specialists and a range of other activities. National Centres in countries across Africa
act as partners in this effort utilizing their particular regional and local
knowledge, personnel and talents.
In addition to loss of life,
lightning and other weather hazards can cause damage to infrastructure, utility
transmission, electronics, oil and gas installations and other equipment that
is vital to day-to-day life as well as to the greater development of the
economies of Africa. Beyond the
immediate effect, there is ‘‘down-time’ and loss of productivity, cost of
equipment replacement and repair, loss of data and records, and other retarding
effects on economic activity. For
individuals, families, and small businesses, it may include food spoilage, loss
of employment time and profit.
ACLE proposes to participate in the
Lake Victor Basin Commission call for projects by forming partnerships with
weather detection companies, national and local meteorological programs,
telecommunications programs and others to provide weather warnings to people
living near and depending on Lake Victoria for their livelihood. In addition, ACLE proposes to work with media
and educators to disseminate lightning safety information, collect data on
injuries and to use the data to study the effectiveness of any interventions to
determine ‘best practices’ that may be effective for other venues.
ACLE looks forward to contributing to
the safety and wellbeing of the people of Africa, allowing them greater security
in which to raise their families and pursue their work as well as to contribute
to the growing prosperity of the African business and technological communities.
Prof. Emerita MaryAnn Cooper
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