AT LEAST 30 students were struck by lightning in Rulindo District alone over the last one month, with the latest incident occurring on Tuesday this week.

Fortunately, none of the students lost their lives but dozens of people have died in lightning strikes across different parts of Rwanda in recent years.

Globally, fatalities from lightning strikes range anywhere between 10 and 30 per cent, while up to 89 per cent of survivors sustain long-term injuries.

In Rwanda, meteorological services are, understandably, highly centralised owing to the high-level of expertise and sophisticated logistical systems needed for weather forecasting.

As a result, the function of issuing severe weather warnings is primarily viewed as the role of the Rwanda Meteorological Agency or, at best, the central government.

Subsequently, local authorities and other actors at the grassroots have largely remained uninvolved in efforts to raise public awareness around natural hazard risks and what residents should or shouldn’t do to prevent or mitigate them.

This means that residents are likely to miss out on important disaster warnings and tips, sometimes with dire consequences.

For instance, despite advice from the weather agency and other government authorities for members of the public to take even the most basic precautionary measures (such as not using phones, to switch off the radio or/and TV, to not seek shelter under trees or to stay away from doors and windows when it is raining), few people have changed their attitude. Even fewer have heeded calls to install lightning conductors or to take other preventive measures.

And, to a great extent, this also applies to other weather-related disasters like floods, stormwater, strong winds, among others. And it has come at a great cost, with official statistics showing that disasters claimed the lives of at least 802 people since 2018, with more than 1,280 others sustaining injuries.

Extreme weather events also destroyed houses (34,568 units), killed 1,157 cattle, and wreaked havoc on thousands of hectares of crops, as well as public infrastructure like schools, health centres, roads, bridges, among others.

Needless to say, Rwanda, thanks in part to its hilly topography, is prone to different disasters, and there is a need for local government entities, up to the Isibo level, to be more proactive in spreading the word about disaster preparedness.

The same goes for other stakeholders at the grassroots, including religious, civil society as well as opinion leaders.

We should all get involved with this effort to help reverse the trend.