*Title: Curbing Urban Sprawl: A Call to Action for Real Estate Companies*

Urban sprawl, characterized by the uncontrolled growth of cities into surrounding rural areas, has become a pervasive issue worldwide. In Uganda, one of the primary drivers of this phenomenon is the proliferation of small plots subdivided and sold out by illegal real estate companies. This essay advises the government to reassess the development strategies of these companies and guide them to adopt more sustainable and responsible practices.

Firstly, It has become a norm in most urbanizing towns for real estate firms to buy large lots of land for purposes of subdividing and reselling them with the interest of making profits. However, in most cases; the process of subdivision doesnot follow the available planning schemes and has led to the creation of various slums across the country through the illegal purchase of small sized plots considered substandard by the National Physical Planning Standards and Guidelines. 

Local autorities around kampala such as Mukono, Mpigi and Wakiso face overwhelming pressure from the high land values in the capital that push people to buy land in these upcoming towns outside the city for both residential and commercial use. Thus changing the rural fringes from green to brown. 

Roads provided in these illegal subdivisions/estates are not more than 10feet hence leading to narrow roads, waste management issues are not considered and as well the overall drainage pattern is often neglected. Sometimes on the other hand, subdivisions are carried on protected areas like wetlands thus contributing to climate change. 

Furthermore, real estate companies must recognize the long-term consequences of their actions. The development of small plots, often with little regard for environmental or social considerations, contributes to the degradation of natural habitats, increased traffic congestion, and strain on municipal/city resources. In addition, such developments often lack basic amenities, such as open parks, community centers, and public transportation, which are essential for maintaining a high quality of urban life.

To mitigate these issues, real estate companies should prioritize the development of larger, more comprehensive projects that incorporate green spaces, community facilities, and sustainable design principles. This approach not only reduces the environmental footprint of developments but also creates more desirable and livable communities.

Secondly, real estate companies must engage with local authorities and stakeholders to ensure that their developments align with existing urban planning frameworks and community needs. This collaborative approach enables the creation of more cohesive and sustainable urban environments, where development is balanced with conservation and social welfare.

The department of urban development should comeout openly through the official Uganda Media Platforms to decampaign such small subdivisions that are against the current planning frameworks in various local governments as a support to the local planners who often face limited funding of their operations, lack of enforcement teams, political interference and other challenges that jeopardise their work ability.. 

Finally, real estate companies should adopt innovative and inclusive development models that prioritize affordability, accessibility, and environmental sustainability. This may involve incorporating green building technologies, community land trusts, and inclusive zoning policies into their development strategies.

In conclusion, real estate companies have a critical role to play in shaping the future of our cities. By adopting more sustainable, responsible, and inclusive development practices, they can help curb urban sprawl and create thriving, livable communities for generations to come. 

LUBADDE RAHIM

Physical Planner 

lubadder@gmail.com

*“Illegal Land Subdivision is a Cancer to Proper Urban Planning”*

 *Introduction* : Today more than half of the world’s population live and work in urban areas. Much as the country draws attention to the security and health of the people, engineering road works and other infrastructural programs, the central government of Uganda should dedicate similar efforts to taming the increasing rate of informal and illegal land subdivisions that has been given platform to deteriorate urban planning through uncontrolled urban sprawl, encroachment on open spaces, wetlands and creation of slummy communities. 

Similarly, the same efforts that the government extended to curb the spread of cancer disease should be extended to all urban planning institutions in a bit to terminate the persisting development immorality with an aim of creating sustainable neighborhoods that will favor livability, connectivity, and efficient existence of the current and future population.

 *Substandard and illegal land subdivisions are cancerous* 

Urban planners have referred it to a “Development Cancer” that is yet to explode into enormous environment and climatic challenges as the case was with the recent flooding and high urban temperatures in Kampala metro city. This development cancer as was referred to was first identified by the State of land use compliance report for Uganda’s urban local governments that was published by the Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development in September, 2016 where it noted that land subdivisions were generally being carried out without the involvement of technical staff at the Town Councils yet they are in charge of enforcing development control and guiding developments in their areas of jurisdiction.

Distinctively, the technical staffs at the respective Town Councils assert that the central government has not empowered them to respond to such issues. Others affirm that the illegal subdivisions are driven politically by a few people especially those that benefit financially including surveyors, brokers, real estate companies, land owners and some politicians. 

Additionally, there has not been debates established on how the urban poor access land for development and settlement at national level where policy reforms, development directions and practical solutions could be established to revive the decaying towns like Kakiri in Wakiso, Kalagi in Mukono, Mpigi and others where coercions of increasing population and sprawl are rampant. 

The substandard and illegal land subdivisions have created room for continuous uncoordinated encroachment into rural agricultural lots, open spaces and environmental areas thereby creating a generalized character of a typical Ugandan town branded with floods, narrow roads, unsanitary living conditions, disconnected neighborhoods, slum developments, inequalities and others. 

In fact on several occasions, the National Physical Planning Board has rallied against this cancer in speeches, workshops, debates, consultations and during policy formulation though until now it has attracted less or no attention by the top most leadership. 

 *Private sector involvement* 

The flabbergasting demand for housing and land for development has officially fancied increased participation of the private sector in the process of land subdivision through land banking, real estate development and land broking. Unfortunately, this kind of favoritism has acted to the advantage of defectors thus declining the role of government in creating conditions conducive to land supply by eliminating legal and regulatory constraints. 

While many towns continue to contravene planning standards and regulations, National Televisions and Radios have also given chance to the self-made informal land brokers to advertise and persuade the populations to buy substandard plots, create slums and spread unethical information in a way that jeopardizes Urban Planning Principles of order, health and connectivity. This has been recorded as a major trigger for spreading the said development cancer and immorality. 

 *Way Forward* : Therefore a comprehensive solution to the growing land subdivision cancer requires a collaborative effort from all government agencies, local authorities, developers, land owners and the affected communities through the use of technologies like GIS, better land use planning strategies, law enforcement and restrictive government policy reforms like halting all broadcasted information related to substandard plots and noncompliance to planning schemes. 

 *Conclusion* : None the less, its against the above background that the thinkers of this country need to handle the situation with sanity through seeking to reflect on the transitional processes that would shift the mandate of declaring special planning areas, land subdivisions back to government technical departments. 

The writer is a Physical Planner

Lubadde Rahim - lubadder@gmail.com

*𝐈 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐎 – 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐘 𝐎𝐍 𝐖𝐄𝐓𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒*

💡𝙰𝚜 𝚠𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚃𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚢 𝙿𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙳𝚊𝚢....

rahim lubadde

For a long time, the government of Uganda has trekked a narrative to restore the rapidly depreciating wetland resources from investors and citizenry reclamation through ordering both parties to vacate these water catchment grounds.  It was not until last month that the president of Uganda lifted the order only to favor investors who he appealed had been hoodwinked by the colonial government.

This however happened after the government evicted hundreds of settlers in Lubigi wetland and abolished rice growth on an estimated 30-acre in a wetland in Otuke in early July to dissuade farmers from cultivating in catchment areas. Nonetheless regions like Bukedia and Busoga have continued to establish rice and sugarcane plantations which exert pressure on river Mpologoma that flows from Elgon to Kyoga.

To this matter, Uganda lies at the verge of losing more than 60% of its original wetland coverage from 17.5% in the early 1990’s to 8.5% to date due to human activities, some of which have been permitted by NEMA to operate factories and warehouses in gazatted industrial parks located in wetlands for example, Namanve, Luzira, Bweyogerere, etc.

Therefore, much as the government wishes to retain investors in wetlands, these places house a huge number of civilians that comprise the Urban Poor living in low lying parts of urban areas like in Ndeeba, Katwe, Kasokoso, Kosovo etc. Such people have been robbed in the same way like the alleged investors since its envisaged that most of them buy land parcels during dry seasons with limited knowledge on the prevailing flooding conditions.

It is not out of desire that civilians stay in water logged places that leave their lives in jeopardy, this has been a result of a magnitude of factors forcing them to degrade the natural environment for survival for instance; poverty, limited sensitization, lack of alternatives and increased land values.

But despite the inhumane conditions that persist in wetland communities characterized by indecent housing, poor sanitation and worsening levels of starvation with no efforts to imbue life, People look at this situation as normal since government has no dimension to resettle them even in situations where elites have condemned the silence on the matter.

While government strategies to evict the urban poor hassling with improper housing in wetlands, it is on the other side cherishing investors ironically by aiding them establish factories in similar places that have exposed wetlands to risks through issuing them certified operational permits. However, climatic havocs will continue to occur and natives will one day rise to fight against this status quo.

Unless proper rezoning ordinances are established to over-see a dynamic shift in settlement patterns aimed at reducing reclamation of gazatted wetlands as more citizens search for cheap land to establish homes and business centres, the poor urban dwellers living in water logged communities will have nowhere to go. “If you evict them, where will they go?”

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗽𝗵𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿

 *𝗟𝗨𝗕𝗔𝗗𝗗𝗘 𝗥𝗔𝗛𝗜𝗠

𝗹𝘂𝗯𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗿@𝗴𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺*

“Lukwago’s fight for Boda-bodas is a social fair play”

Each day, thousands of passengers in Kampala depend on “Boda bodas” for fast, reliable, and flexible connectivity during their travel. To meet this need, city authorities across the globe are increasingly opting to work with neutral providers and urban planners to plan for equitable transport facilities and to readdress the general form of cities for equity and reliable transportation unlike Kampala’s city authority that portrays motorists as a threat to city development.

In 2002, a group of Vendors related to an association called “Tukole Bukozi Traders” were joined by the city Mayor Ssebaana Kizito to fight against the Council enforcement that wished to evict them from the streets of St Balikuddembe market. After the elapse of 10years, vendors still conveyed on the streets of the city; all efforts to evict them were largely not effective and hence failed by 2011 when Jennifer Musisi also insisted on the same. 

On several occasions, Lord Mayor Lukwago has scorned KCCA for unlawfully evicting street vendors and hawkers through his assertion that Uganda has got no supportive law to evict the urban poor. He has since said that such people would be licensed by KCCA formerly and designated road side specially planned markets for order, convenience and effective city functionality. At a certain moment, the former RCC Hud Husein brought in the National Army (UPDF) to apply vigor in the eviction process but all ended in vanity.

This deceitful ‘scorching fire’ has also hit up Motorist business due to the increased tension in the city center that has been brought up by insecurity related actions, congestions and corresponding road indiscipline. The catastrophe could be redirected through having separate lanes designed for motor bikes just the way it is on Namirembe road and Luwumu Street.

Last week the media received ruthless statements from the prime minister and Gen. Katumba regarding the reduction of Motorcycles within the CBD. This conclusion had been made without fanatic consultative meetings with various stakeholders. The erratic 7000 wanted motorcycles in the center are strongly believed to be very ideological numbers rather than practical and bound to face continuous opposition. 

This phobia has prompted the KCCA Executive Committee to petition the High Court to quash the ban on “Boda-bodas”, on grounds that it is illegal, heartless and unprofessional. This committee stated that no one supports this business yet it employs more than 200,000 innocent Ugandans. Recently, the president of the republic of Uganda criminalized “Boda bodas” during a 2017 vigil of one of the great leaders that succumbed to assailants who used motorcycles to fire all around his private vehicle. However, these are a few individuals that have used the improper road design to fulfil their individual benefits at expense of the other Ugandans who use the business to sustain their cost of living within a dying economy. 

Therefore, I wish to bring to the attention of Hon. Nabanja and Gen. Katumba the fact that the country’s job market is still limited by challenges including the wage gap, corruption, nepotism and tribalism yet university entry is free for all. This implies that the largest group in informal businesses emanates from graduates that try to creatively and unluckily make ends meet after failing in the unhealthy job competition in organizations, central and local governments to informal self-employment. There are numerous challenges in the informal sector that need urgent considerations rather than sending out urbanists from the city. It is through such acts that the government hitherto receives opposing groups on many of its strategies.  

Owing to Lukwago’s fight for the well-being of the urban poor, it is unfair to relate it to seeking Political Capital yet there are no avenues embraced formerly to switch the status quo. The registration of “Boda bodas” and having them stipulated into licensed stages is important as said by Gen. Katumba but the challenges of the city are wider than that. It is the poor land use development that causes congestion within the developing city. If the aim of the government is to organize the ‘Capital’, then comprehensive research on the dos and don’ts needs to be established.   

An all-inclusive Urban Planning scheme should be established in Kampala if equity is to be availed for projects’ acceptability. This will attract compliance to smart city development strategies formulated by all stakeholders. Generally, unless there are more alternatives for youths, “Lukwago’s fight for Boda-bodas is a fair play” aimed at keeping the poor in the city since they equally share Constitutional Rights. 

The writer is a Physical Planner,

Lubadde Rahim @July 2022

lubadder@gmail.com

PHYSICAL PLANNING

My love is for you my profession,

My eyes are raised straight to you,

I will run towards you, when you call me.

I will paint your name on the city buildings,

You are so unique, you are so elegant,

I will live by your principles.

Urban Planning is your name, 

Glittering with proper development 

I hail you, you are so unique,

I will bring you to my town,

I will order every developer to follow your ethics.

https://www.facebook.com/UrbanLifeGoodLife/

Like the earth goddess, I am your carrier,

Worry no more; I will lift you with love,

I prefer calling you hubby; I do not sleep minus thinking about you. 

Every day I do something new for you,

I bring you gifts, I gossip about you, 

You so amazing, I will tell my descendants about you.  

https://www.facebook.com/UrbanLifeGoodLife/

Like Ebenezer Howard, you are my Garden city,

A city flourishing with proper street designs and greenery,

A city with wider and complete boulevards, 

A city with resilient characters; worry no more my love. 

I will take you to the golf course; hoo I will take you the city square,

A city greenery park with amazing streetscapes, lighting and romantic moments,

Together with your sibling urban design and place-making,

I cried last time when you let me down in Luwero,

I felt like the world had ended, but the priest gave me hope,

Our church deliverance is worth remembering and I proclaim, 

I will never let you down-you are indeed my worth. 

You are my place rather than space, love me I beg,

I will bring you gifts, I will gossip about you,

You are so amazing. 

When we made our agreement in Makerere University,

You promised to be there for me;

Your mother, Physical Planning likes me, love me I beg.

Like Jane Jacobs, our love shall never die like American streets,

It has existed from classical times in Mesopotamia, 

Give me chance to hold you; you are worth loving,

You are so amazing, my love. 

I will cherish you, I will caress you,

It hurts me when I see you with other boys.

It hurt me when I saw you last time with my rival,

Don’t say you are so old for me, age is just numbers,

Give me chance to sleep in your chest. In our house privately,

I will protect you like Italian historical Artifacts.

Design you like Paris in France, I will bring you romance.

Urban Planning, you are so amazing. 

Am your only carrier, am your earth goddess

By Lubadde Rahim 

Poet and writer of Urban Planning Scripts  

lubadder@gmail.com  

THE CITY NETWORK  @Facebook

LURE URBAN PLANNING!!!!!

LURE URBAN PLANNING!!!!!

My love is for you my profession,

My eyes are raised straight to you,

I will run towards you, when you call me.

I will paint your name on the city buildings,

You are so unique, you are so elegant,

I will live by your principles.

Urban Planning is your name, 

Glittering with proper development 

I hail you, you are so unique,

I will bring you to my town,

I will order every developer to follow your ethics.

Like the earth goddess, I am your carrier,

Worry no more; I will lift you with love,

I prefer calling you hubby; I do not sleep minus thinking about you. 

Every day I do something new for you,

I bring you gifts, I gossip about you, 

You so amazing, I will tell my descendants about you.  

Like Ebenezer Howard, you are my Garden city,

A city flourishing with proper street designs and greenery,

A city with wider and complete boulevards, 

A city with resilient characters; worry no more my love. 

I will take you to the golf course; hoo I will take you the city square,

A city greenery park with amazing streetscapes, lighting and romantic moments,

Together with your sibling urban design and place-making,

I cried last time when you let me down in Luwero,

I felt like the world had ended, but the priest gave me hope,

Our church deliverance is worth remembering and I proclaim, 

I will never let you down-you are indeed my worth. 

You are my place rather than space, love me I beg,

I will bring you gifts, I will gossip about you,

You are so amazing. 

When we made our agreement in Makerere University,

You promised to be there for me;

Your mother, Physical Planning likes me, love me I beg.

Like Jane Jacobs, our love shall never die like American streets,

It has existed from classical times in Mesopotamia, 

Give me chance to hold you; you are worth loving,

You are so amazing, my love. 

I will cherish you, I will caress you,

It hurts me when I see you with other boys.

It hurt me when I saw you last time with my rival,

Don’t say you are so old for me, age is just numbers,

Give me chance to sleep in your chest. In our house privately,

I will protect you like Italian historical Artifacts.

Design you like Paris in France, I will bring you romance.

Urban Planning, you are so amazing. 

Am your only carrier, am your earth goddess

By Lubadde Rahim 

Poet and writer of Urban Planning Scripts  

lubadder@gmail.com 

CITY PLANNING MEDIA @Facebook

Tinka the village girl💥

Managing cities and urban growth across the globe is one of the principal challenges of the 21st Century that has seen cities develop into centers of urban poverty, conflict and dissatisfaction to the elites and the underprivileged yet no underlying factor has been given to explain the status quo.

However, various localities are critically ill with lack of proper information flow to aid in the formation of a coherent urban fabric as explained in the famous story of Tinka, a poor girl who went abroad to work while sending her savings to a friend who bought her a plot of land engraved in a wetland.

Tinkasimire left Kwabo village in 2002 after a long political turmoil that had severely affected Uganda for close to 10years. The decision to come to Kampala was dictated by the death of her guardian at the end of the NRA war. She had lived as an underprivileged child with no access to education and other basic necessities though yearned for a better living all her youthful age.

Upon accumulating some funds from the sale of her seasoned harvest, Tinka requested aid from the truck driver to whom she had sold her fruits to transport her to the capital. The poor girl climbed and sat on top of the Avocado truck regardless of her gender.

She reached Kampala with utmost excitement, a place with no relative and new to her eyes. Every aspect of life seemed new to her. She could not help fantasizing the gymnastic allegories she imagined on glancing at the Kampala sky scrapers. Tinka had village counterparts staying in Katwe ghetto neighborhood which gave her a foundation mark; she stayed and worked with the fellows she had met in Katwe. With the small capital she had accumulated, the young girl hastened to join the team in search for her fortune.

Tinka worked with a lot of hard work and after a period of 1 and a half years, she had accumulated 2million Uganda shillings which she used to go abroad to work as a house maid in Saudi Arabia where she signed a contract for 2years. Throughout the entire work period, she could send all her saving to a friend called Morgana who she later asked to buy her a plot of land so as to construct small rental houses. 

Upon the lapse of the contract, Tinka came back home with extreme enthusiasm ready to see the kind of plot her friend her bought on her behalf only to be ironically cheered up by a (20X40)ft plot in Ndeeba village. At first the plot looked astonishing; its closeness to the city center was so appealing to Tinka, who had spent most of her life in the Village setting. She was to spend one month in Kampala and then go back for a second contract in a bid to raise money to begin the construction process. 

Tinka monitored her plot during a time when it had taken 2weeks minus raining; the entire neighborhood looked dry, ready and ripe for development. She spent the following week visiting her relatives in Kwabo village for she had taken long without glancing at them. 

Later Tinka went back for a second contract which went on successfully more or less similar to the first. She was slowly getting used to the urban living and cultures. She saved her money on her DFCU bank account with hope that she would construct when she comes back to Kampala after a period of 3years. 

As years passed, the contract came to an end. Tinka had accumulated a certain amount of money and was ready to come back purposely to begin construction. She asked Morgana to escort her back to the plot, something Morgana did without hesitation. As they walked through the road downwards, the dryness of the land ceased, it was sloping into a wetland, the ground beneath their feet started to become muddy and soggy. 

To their dismay, the further they traversed, the wetter it became. Small bumps or hillocks of drier land stick up above the mud, while dips in the ground level filled up with water and formed small pools of water. All of a sudden, they enter the lush profusion of plants which heralded the beginning of the magical world that is a wetland.

The plot was indeed filled up with water lingering from the famous Ndeeba drainage channel. Little did Morgana know that the plot was a few meters from the major drain. Tinka too hastened to realize that the plot was located in a wetland, Morgana had taken a decision mistakenly without making research, and she must have not been informed about the status of the place perhaps she bought the land in a season of dryness. 

Tinka was on the verge of tears, as they welled up in her eyes, a tingle of sorrow swept over her chubby face rendering her to feel blue and was afraid to utter any word to Morgana. At that moment, Tinka was paralyzed as she became speechless with bosom curiosity.

Construction in such a place would be inevitable since many structures had cropped out from different developers. Tinka too could not afford to lose her 2years savings, but where could this leave the natural environment. Such places must be devoid of permanent structures regardless of their economic gain since climate change is driving the entire world into disasters. 

NOTE

A large group of people fall culprits of different life aspects because they lack information and therefore the National Physical Planning Board should ensure that information regarding the development of various urban centers in the country propagates downwards to all citizens equally to reduce the number of people buying plots in wetlands, road reserves, and buffers without proper guidance.

Commemorating the World Environment Day (5th June) 

Regards 

Physical planner Lubadde Rahim (The Writer)

lubadder@gmail.com 

*WHY KAMPALA IS A CITY OF FLOODS* ?

Author: Lubadde Rahim

As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, lets remind ourselves about cities across the globe that have been designed to embrace livable and sustainable human settlement while putting a comparison with Uganda’s Capital that poses as a flopped state seeking emergence renaissance. A ‘1.7 million people City’ seated on 189 square kilometers gives an average density of 8994 persons per square kilometer approximately (UBOS data 2019), with numerous hills and beautiful sceneries that have attracted the largest number of Ugandan elites. 

The uncontrolled organic urban development taking pace on the look of urban authorities that has rendered ex-green belts, swamps and public harbors susceptible to a risk of being eaten up by human activities. The increasing land value in the city center is sending away the urban poor and directing them to settling in wetlands and other protected areas due to lack of alternatives.

Kampala has for a longtime proved to be a city with imbalances between population growth and settlement patterns. It is a place of sarcastic and adverse urban development, city-wide decay and low rate of response to emergencies. Pavements and rooftops mean that less rainwater can soak into the ground. The pattern of streets and buildings has interrupted some of the natural drainage ways and reduced the width of some channels. As a result, more water runs off more quickly, and the drainage system has often become overloaded.

The city is majorly challenged with lack of hydraulic and hydrological related data where it has failed to manage a clear record of its rainfall amounts, wetland distribution, drainage systems and general water flows data, uncontrolled urban expansion, abandoned buildings, illegal connections of sewage into the separate drainage network, and great amounts of sediments and organic matter which decrease the performance of the drainage facilities, lack of legal instruments and difficulty to approve new legislation, urban planning restrictions, Institutional and political problems, opposition by the population, designers and public managers. 

Additionally, it’s identified with overlooked scramble and partitioning of land within the wetlands hence bleeding with limited space for catchment of storm water. Land managers spearhead wetland destruction through personalization and issuing of land titles in these vulnerable places. The notion, “water is life” is gradually decelerating in the city center since a dream of a heavy rain is a nightmare to many. The manner in which wetland resources have been depleted is a disgrace to the face of Urban Planning as a profession and provokes ridiculers into questioning the prevailing urban management systems. 

The massive erosion, silting of drainage channels, poor waste management as well as reclamation all contribute to this ‘city of floods.’ Natives interpret the status quo as a normal phenomenon that seasonally comes and goes, forgetting the long-term consequences that are left behind. People seem not to be bothered because after a flood wash, business resumes ordinarily.

The urban authority in-charge of the city alleges that it formulated a drainage master plan to curb the flood and its effects which has been challenged with limited funding and skilled workmanship. The drainage master plan that was formulated in 2003 was a way of directing storm water that increased steadily due to the reduction in the green spaces that have been pressurized by the ever-increasing population. Until now its workability is questioned. 

This has overtime hyped the concern of many government bodies including the National Physical Planning Board that has responded by cautioning the city managers to take concern of the known flooding, housing and planning challenges to ensure improved livelihoods for the citizens. The challenges of excess storm water management in Kampala can be wrapped under one theme “lack of an operational and easily implementable urban and environmental master plan”.

In 2016, an Italian based consultancy firm specialized in water and land scape designing called “SGI Studio Galli Ingegneria” was contracted to review the 2003 Kampala Drainage Master Plan to check its operationability, its challenges and to pledge a way forward, a project that lasted for 5months. As a result, different additions were observed and taken onboard. It has also been noted with great concern that drainage has been given priority under KIIDP 2, a project that supports Kampala City improvement through world bank funding. However, it is ironical to say that with all such consideration, the drainage system has continued to smack as the biggest challenge that the ‘Country’s Capital’ battles with especially during a heavy rain.

 The central government’s silence over the castrophe makes one to think that there is a ‘burning solutions’ that is being planned indoors that is yet to be unveiled, only to hear tales. Kampala metropolitan is a home of numerous wetlands including Bwaise, Ndeeba, Katwe, Nakivubo, Namasuba among others but soon will be living in a shadow of its glamorous natural resources as more swamps continue to be reclaimed.

The city of floods is this town that has been built on wetlands without safeguards to stormwater/flooding and yet city buildings and infrastructure seat on former water catchment arenas. Therefore, city wide developments should be established in a manner that advocates for the wellbeing of natural resources, drainage channels should be reconstructed, waste should be properly disposed at household level, buildings close to drainage channels should have paved compounds as ways of controlling blockages in stormwater flow. 

Management of a flood wash should be handled by respective risk management committees at local council level, maintain records of the people/areas affected and have constant checkups and monitoring tours within these sections but most importantly to utilize the use of a GIS system to predict future hazards. 

Finally, the city authority must perceive the fact that people settling in these low-lying areas are to stay with the flood until our contemporary political and budgetary system support proper urban planning.  Enforcement of non-structural planning laws is particularly challenging due to the physically extensive informal housing in wetlands which is exacerbated by political, policy, and socioeconomic arrangements. “There may not be enough time to prepare after you are notified of a flood watch…” (Boulder, 2002). 

Therefore, urban managers should also empower communities to maintain their drainage systems, through regular inspection and cleaning of drains, an important task that can be performed without specialized skills. As our cities develop, let’s put city planners at the fore front to fight urban challenges. 

The END

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The writer is a Physical Planner

Lubadde Rahim

lubadder@gmail.com

ELECTIONS, PHYSICAL PLANNING & OPEN SPACES

Written by Lubadde Rahim

Date 24th January 2021

Whether saddened or privileged by the prevailing political atmosphere, I come in yet again to expound on the bridge in Urban Planning in the republic of Uganda. Am not here to predict victory to which ever group I prefer but rather to put up a ‘statement’ for the benefit of future cities. It was last week that I stood to challenge a group of Professional Physical Planners and Commissioners in the Urban Development arena in regard to the less innovations amongst prevailing representatives at all levels of Urban and Regional Planning, an idea that many declined. Not being an extremist in anyway, I continue to stand for the common interests of delivering the public good. I dedicate this piece to fellow Physical Planners arguing them to start writing their legacies than walking the misinforming yaks in this contemporary era.

Though not fully immersed in the political game, I gave myself a task to move around the ‘Capital’ to observe the nature in which the voting exercise was carried out by pointing out the inequalities from an Urban Planning point of view. The very few but essential facts that many of us don’t consider while carrying out planning, designing, decision making and policy formulation. During the drive, vigorous observations were established to make meaningful judgements but hitherto my heart bits unceasingly low when I fathom the continued contempt of urban planning as a multi-dimensional profession that affects urban development in numerous traditions. This is not about the Engineers, Land Managers, Economists and Architects but rather a shortfall asserted within my ‘line of work’ by upper authorities including Ministries, local governments, private sector and Urban Planners’ self-articulation. Indeed, we have gone off the norms of Ebenezer Howard’s “garden city”, we have continued to contempt the ideas of Jane Jacobs’ “street and city spaces”. Which history are we writing?

It begun as any other day heedful but unusual with closed urban arcades, shopping malls and markets; security personales roaming around every corner of the ‘National Capital’ to ensure maximum citizen protection. The usually ‘day-active’ streets of Kampala City like Luwum, Ben Kiwanuka, William and the historical Kikuubo lane were painted dark with no traces of human living only comparable to the great Namibi desert. We were welcomed to the longingly awaited voting day where hundreds of urban dwellers stayed in the suburb to cast their votes and others claimed anticipated phobia of the aftermath of the election period. Chanting voices of innocent citizens living in the city peripheral still cling in my medulla and whose name was cheered is a story for another day. It must have been their candidature choices. Many people walked languorously towards their polling stations though a few hastened due to fear of the longevity of cues. The polling grounds were located in distant places from residences which made it a little stiff for all citizens to reach on time and with a lot of unease.

On reaching the polling site, I stopped at the entry and withdrew my hand from the fore pockets of my trousers only to find my voters’ location slip and national Identity card, I must have been prepared to cast my vote. Campaign Photographs for different aspirants had been turned out to face the roadside where every voter passed. The place was filled with electro commission officials, contestants’ agents and a large number of voters. My heart remained cool for the rest of time not until I observed that ‘trespass’ was the order of the day since youth’s never adhered to making straight cues. It had taken 2hours when our cue could not move, people entered it from all directions as if there were no security officers to maintain order. Furthermore, to my dismay, the place become so hot since it was shinning all over. Our cue was aligned directed to the scorching sunlight and there hardly existed any form of shade in the open ground, it begun to feel a little unease for most of us. Even when you felt like resting, you could hardly find a sitting facility. Only the polling officials and agents had plastic chairs to rest their tired bodies. I still vividly remember a group of three old men who I plumb could have been between 80 to 85 years of age and their grandson who left the polling site before casting their vote due to the lack of sitting/resting facilities and yet the sun rays reflected so high. In their expression, it seemed like they had moved a longer distance to access the polling ground.

Putting my setting aside, I knew I needed information regarding other places ridiculously overwhelmed with numbers of voters. I turned to google, as I always do for all my research needs, and looked for the places with the highest number of registered voters. It was disturbing to realize that Internet had been completely switched off. It was a time of no regrets, I turned on my car TV to watch news at noon, most polling stations in Kawempe, Masaka city, Jinja and elsewhere were stunned with numbers. It looked as if there was a political mission to accomplish. Nature cried out loud as my inclination could tell the amount of force that was put on prevailing public spaces especially village plazas, pitches, open grounds, and others.  Clusters of supporters had submerged into different polling stations which had no facilities to handle such capacities. The prevailing greenery was destroyed, rubbish was thrown all over, toilet facilities could not be seen and one wondered where at least officials helped themselves. People spent the whole day with empty stomachs, not because they had no money, but because many areas had no restaurants and hotels.

It is of no complete hesitation that a large number of villages across the country lack gazetted public spaces to host different communal activities which therefore fancied presiding officers to opt for private individual’s compounds, roadsides, abandoned housing facilities and inaccessible places to organize the polling exercise, hence leaving room for a state of doubt in the results all across. For instance, in Kayunga town, a contestant’s home was used as a polling station and upon counting, the number of votes exceeded that of voters. Here residents claim that he used advantage of the fact that activities were carried out in his compound and therefore he rigged. The whole process felt frightening when residents in one of the villages in Wakiso blocked traffic flow due to the long cues that were made across the road.

Additionally, even to those that seemed to have organized public spaces, they were not equally distributed amongst communities and hence people moved longer distances to cast their votes. This could in one way or the other be a pretext for many not to involve in the former election. While urban planners distribute space for various land uses, there is a need to consider proximity and equity among residents, the presence of vulnerable groups and unexpected circumstances. The election story is fascinating, and a many fictional readers and members of the urban world will quickly become intrinsic to my story.

The open ground where I casted my vote from belonged to Mr. Kyaze, contestant who lost; I don’t know whether he will allow the residents to continue with using the space but that would be an understatement not to appreciate his endeavor to provide for his community. I took the largest part of the day observing all the cuddles that surrounded Kampala. Later in the day, when the voting was finalized, vote counting commenced as it approached nightfall. The night was a special kind of blackness, the kind that wants only to hold the stars and help them to shine all the brighter. It was a warm black that hugged you no matter what, and within its safety I could feel my own soul all the more clearly, that innocent inborn spark silently. Everyone waited softly for results to be pronounced. Presiding officers became busy ‘here and there’ as soldiers came closer to polling stations to secure officers, votes, and also to ensure peaceful counting.

At nightfall the city became completely empty, it looked strange too with maximum silence of the wilderness, all places including the roadsides and the public spaces where vote counting was staged were filled with darkness. I started to question my safety, our public spaces including the streets and open spaces are not naturally lighted, while some are locked in built up places with numerous obstacles like skyscrapers and large ancient trees, others are not open to the sky. Corridors also became a center of nightmares as streets turned into vandalism scenes. In the suburb where we felt safe before, places became frightening during the darkness. Presiding officers pulled out small touches and smartphones to those that had chance to access them so as to light up the places to continue with the process.

Generally, all forces responsible for urban development should reconsider ancient planning dimensions to cause room for sustainable urbanism, create open spaces and ensure street safety of all people through urban design. It is so absurd to be a physical planner remembered for no innovative project but woes. In the end, physical planning will be hailed, our reputation will be adored and our instinct will be felt in creating senses of places and therefore stop leaving like strangers in our communities. Once again, I thank you all for always following and request that you share this message to create a difference.

The writer is a physical planning trainee

Write your legacy today!

@city_planning_Media (CPM)

Ourcity-Ourlife

From the other side of the city...

LUBADDE RAHIM

PHYSICAL PLANNER

URBANISATION AND THE NEW CITIES(2019)

We shall debate about locusts and covid 19 later, there has been a burning issue in the parliament of Uganda amidst the global coronavirus tension. Parliamentarians need to understand the concept of urbanism in development. 

#USA had #10_mega_cities with a population of more than one million as at 2018. You may ask why compare a developed country with a developing country but the idea behind formulation of cities, municipalities and town councils is far beyond the political motives of the people who are involved in approving these urban centers: Provided Start up funds,  the workers of the new municipality should device means of accumulating their revenue in any manner. 

Therefore, we should stop saying we don’t have money to establish town areas yet they come with better advantages. 

There are five key points that City planning Uganda in its support for the new Urban areas, would wish to forward to its followers;

#Urbanization, Rural Urban Migration, Urban Sprawl; the more we have cities distributed around the country, the more we reduce the pressure in our capital (Kampala) – today Kampala accommodates a population of 1.8million people as residents but receives more than its night population on a daily basis for school, medical services, employment, shopping, leisure etc. In such a manner, we have also witnessed, graduates who deny going back to their home small towns to establish lives there, because Kampala is the only source of ‘gold’. Kampala boundary is no longer clear which is why leaders prefer calling it GKMA- because we have more people trying to find better lives in or on the outskirts of the capital. Many people would remain in their respective towns if made cities and municipalities, and the ever-longing challenges of Kampala like Congestion, poor housing, traffic, crime and delayed service delivery will be sorted in some way. 

#Employment_opportunities; In any case if the decision in not politically influenced by the largest political party in the parliament, then many families’ lives will be improved. From a carpenter who sells desks to municipal schools, beds to town-council health center and office furniture to engineers, surveyor, staticians, secretaries and political careers. Having various local government is another way through which governments across the globe have given out employment opportunities to people and for this to be a success, nepotism and tribalism should not be a driver in any case. We shall have reduced the number of people roaming with academic documents on Luwumu street and Kampala road looking for jobs. 

#Representation; in any manner people/citizens at the grassroot feel represented when given political representatives like councilors and Members of parliament. This is so controversial to the current politicians because they also feel that their areas of influence will be divided. But the good news from that is the populations still win with increased service delivery and national representation. 

#Development_advantages, believe me all areas that delayed to acquire urban statuses like municipal councils and town councils are incurring a high cost in terms of rectifying their development to create orderly and convenient areas. It is only urban areas that enforce section 3 of the physical planning act. We need the more municipals and town to ensure that physical development plans are prepared, implemented and enforce to cause order, we may fail to cope with the challenges if we delay. We shall have established task forces to fight for our natural resources either.

Increased_Revenue_collection, there are no revenues collected from village settings, we need more shopping malls (not in Kampala), more factories, etc. as facilities that increase the country’s revenue and grow the economy. 

#NB—Lets’ rethink on the manner through which we take our decisions, and also remind the National Physical Planning Board that the entire process of the establishment of new urban centers is its role and therefore it should work forth to support its claims rather than letting politicians to override them.

The writer is a physical planner 

"Lubadde Rahim"

THE TAXI PARKS IN KAMPALA

*Widen the discussion table - the old taxi park* 

By Rahim Lubadde

Debates to remove and or reduce the number of taxis and boda bodas from the city center, create more cities, municipalities and town councils within the country have formulated one of the fundamental discussion topics in relation to physical planning and urban development in the Ugandan Legislative Assembly/Parliament for the recent weeks in addition to the 10billion Saga and the torture of Hon. Zaake Francis. Nonetheless, there are more barren brains in Uganda than the efforts to unveil them. Their momentum has gone though they creak and thoughts still tumble as years pass. They are being boiled by the subsidizing heat from the unhuman self-proclaimed and creamy thinking fellows. Everyday querying themselves whether God forgot about Uganda but all debates have continuously led to the same conclusive cowardice. History will judge me from a selfless point of view- I have and continue doing my work of sensitizing through my literature. 

Much as our city and transport planners plot to revitalize the chocked nature of our urban transport; through strategizing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), fly overs, the urban green transport of cycling and walking., there are key aspects that need to be considered. They prove to be coming out from the social aspects of humanity and the natural rights that everyone living and working in the city owns. Not to bur from the topic, let me begin by cautioning whoever is responsible for Kampala City Transport Planning that “stakeholder consultations” are part and parcel of the initial stages of planning to seek acceptability from the natives and the politicians otherwise our plans will always remain resisted and on paper.  So, lets always embrace and respect people’s opinions. “… where political credibility is limited, overall social welfare falls and the benefits of public policy flow narrowly to the small group of citizens to whom rulers can make credible commitments’ (Keefer 2007: 2-4)

As a piece of reminder, we need to always begin with “what comes first” for instance we begin by establishment of the national transportation plans to regional to district to municipals to communities as the last stage. There is no any way we can begin from bottom to up in that regard because the former enlightens the later. For purposes of this article, there is a need for a #metropolitan_transportation_committee to emphasis on issues that affect the metropolis as a whole rather than a single segment of Kampala CBD.  While working on transport; we seek knowledge on three aspects of commuter zones, routes and destinations. Let’s not forget that people flowing into the city streets do not actually stay in within. Therefore, what makes us think that removing taxis will solve the traffic jam challenges in the city. I cant rule out the fact that *now* is the best time to regulate on who come back into the city but ‘may be’ we are not ready for the cause.  

As an Authority, KCCA needs to understand the cost of urban redevelopment and regeneration through taking gradual procedures. For instance; establish city exit terminals at the outskirts of the city to ensure that when the ‘introduced buses” set off from the CBD, there is a station where they leave the passengers and then they proceed out by taxi. These sub-terminals at the outskirts shall in the first place restore the “the falling out hearts” of urban taxi drivers, reduce the number of taxis through design with minimal resistance and provide an equivalence in job creation: i.e. if there is a transport terminal in places like Zana, Kawempe, Bulenga, etc. where people can easily change the mode, all taxi drivers would be directed to these places and there will be no or minimal resistance. Many times, it’s not about compliance or divergence for urban policies to work but also the component of equality must prevail for the betterment of everyone. The problem of the city transport system should be looked at a wider scale rather than the removal of the old taxi park. 

The more roads and services that are implanted within the city are responsible for the increasing level of travel destinations and hence more travel demand. Therefore, fear lies intrinsically within me that the billions of public funds coupled with the international loans from China that are being used to construct fly overs, multi/national offices and large commercial buildings will attract more people into the city and hence more traffic problems and yet the closure of the taxi business will stimulate hiking unemployment levels, vandalism, and fragility. At the end, KCCA shall have failed to deliver with policy incoherence and inadequate performance. Nonetheless, as the city ruling Authority, KCCA must develop and coordinate broader integration frameworks that are underpinned to urban planning, city-wide planning, and ensure the inclusion of marginalized groups and key stakeholders to encounter its transport trials. 

As a consequence, given an opportunity through my pen, let me pose a query to the Director of Physical Planning and the Head of the Engineering section of KCCA before a decision is undertaken that “How did the following terminals end up in the middle of the city and yet they transport people miles away from Kampala; i.e. Kisenyi Bus terminal and Link bus terminal(responsible for Chaos in Kisenyi), Arua park(responsible for Chaos along Bombo road ), Namayuba bus terminal(responsible for Chaos along sir Apollo Kaggwa road, Martin road and Gadaffi road ), Mash Poa terminal(responsible for Chaos in Kibuli), Old Kampala terminal (responsible for traffic along Namirembe road, sir Apollo Kaggwa etc.) Why would a passenger going to Fortportal or Kasese by bus pass through the city center to access a Link Bus?  This should also be worked on through relocating the bus terminals to further away from the CBD. Remember, am not here to rebel and or cause havoc to the works undertaken by KCCA during the crisis but to add directly to the ministerial works of the National Departments responsible for transport, housing, urban growth and development and also to sensitize the public about the value in urban planning and policies.

Finally, credit must be given to the road naming projects that ease orientation within the city, urban smart walkways along Namirembe road and Luwumu street, the CCTV camera security program, street lighting, urban green, the introduction of internet applications like safe boda, uber, Bolt, street maps, etc., the great city flyover under construction around clock tower and many other government projects that have been set to reduce traffic jam in the city center though all parties must understand that more than 80% of the people living and working in the city do not drive. 

The writer is a physical planner

lubadder@gmail.com 

 *city planning Uganda*

COMMUNITY ROLE

The community role.

By 

Lubadde Rahim 2018 (recap)

Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. Many have come, though indeed countless have been involuntarily set out. This should not be the lethargy of our generation. Ugandans will take little note on what we say today but they are all responsible for the partial work. All the upcoming slogans like, ‘government etuyambe’ are preliquizite for laziness and failure to coordinate our lifestyle.

It is rather for us to be here and dedicate ourselves to great tasks remaining from the honored deceased, they have all died throbbing and in agony. This is not about me or you but the continued struggle is for us as Ugandans. Like president Obama says, “Yes we can”. The mandate for urban and rural development lies in hands of neither schemers nor government but civilians are the universal stakeholders in the brawl. Whether you like it or not, am not here to lie but to express out what my heart presumes to be factual, call it the ugly truth.

Parsed and constructive it hails profound in me, the tragic, catastrophic and filth nature of the urban streets in Uganda is the pretext for the increasing ‘fabrication’ of new disease causing germs and perhaps vectors. Do we have planners? A question that many ask. Time and time again, basic errors have cropped out in the best streets and claims that Mbarara, Fortportal and Mbale are the cleanest towns in the state. Doubt though not driven directly to the assumption but miscalculations prevail.

Services offered by physical planners are not entirely discrete and personal, they are rather capabilities performed by people for the people. Whoever benefits include the communities. Every time my alarm goes am taken in tremor as anxiety engulfs my soul fathoming about driving on the ugly, dirty streets of Kampala though these days I have absolutely resorted to taking short cuts to moderate the time taken driving.

We are not speaking as students, or planners or citizens of this or that city but rather as part of the living humans whose existence is in complete doubt. We have to learn to think in a new way. We have to learn to ask ourselves, not what steps can be taken to give our environment victory to whatever group we prefer, for there no longer are such steps; the question we have to ask ourselves is: what steps can be taken to prevent the overwhelming devastating conditions. The general public, and even many men in positions of authority, have not realized what would be involved in the continued mass uncoordinated development. The general public still thinks in terms of the obliteration of the rural status rendering our land entirely urban.

Urbanization comes with a complete change of mindsets, but where has it left our communities? In complete devastated and isolated living places. The sense of belonging is dying out and our leaders are silent about it. People are killing one another only because of the lack of balance in the way of development. Our communities still need to play a great role in shaping and developing the places in which we live. A set of discipline that phased out from our ancient spirits. Public amenities are meant to support lives of all individuals in a given place including the strangers and their maintenance is a collective and social role of all people who stay there in such places.

Who cleans drainage channels? Who cleans roadsides? Who burns community rubbish? Who cleans public spaces like churches and mosques? Personalization and bragging is the main cause of poor sanitation in our societies. It is also related to modernity. Should we wait for government to rejuvenate such conditions? Is this about the physical planners?

No, it’s the drama of our mindsets. People only think of their compounds and perhaps private gardens and completely ignore what happens in places where they pass. When diseases such as cholera and Ebola come up, they start censuring the government. The day these naïve souls will discern that it’s not always about people in authority but the community inclusive, our societies will have the preeminent to harvest.

Additionally, confessions must be portrayed, why settle in wetlands, forests, and all other environmentally sensitive areas. Is this the physical planner’s role especially when flooding enhances? A case in point Bwaise, Katanga, Katwe, Ndeeba etc. Cooperate social responsibility should be the talk of every authority, the policy of status quo must stop. There is a need for a communal understanding of the prevailing mitigation measures and the precious role that individuals can play and indeed stop blaming authorities.

Many times people have constructed in road reserves, does this also need a planner to direct development in such situations, and growth should not be in our physical areas but rather in our minds.

In conclusion, a physical planner’s role is to coordinate development and basically enforce physical planning laws and regulations, but the overall implementation and monitoring of his work should be a role of us the natives of these communities. The more we sit back the more we are left behind. Uganda deserves the best because we have everything it takes to develop for example the resources inform of materials, human resource and perhaps capital that is miss-used by the corrupt ‘heads’ of our government officials.

It should be noted that there is a great link between physical planners and politics and this is the reason why they are imputed time to time for the less service delivery. But our planners also demand the finest because their risky decisions are felt directly by the citizens and any mistake done by a planner costs his people a lot.

Wake up Uganda, wake up my people, wake up planners, and wake up authorities!!

""The writer is a physical planner"'

City Planning Uganda!

!!!WORLD CLEAN-UP DAY!!

A CLEAN CITY IS OUR ROLE.!

By Physical Planner 

LUBADDE RAHIM

Today my forest is dark, the trees are sad and all the butterflies have broken wings. It has been the international cleanup day where many countries participated in city cleanups to recognize the day;

As usual, Kampala never waited the boat to capsize when I saw the mayor and the executive director in some form of activities geared towards the same. Other cities and urban councils across the nation where at rest. May be the respective  ICT officers never knew about the day.! 

Having it in mind that ensuring CLEAN & HEALTH cities is part of my roles as an upcoming planner, I slowly moved on the streets of Kampala this Saturday in broad day light.! I sum up my observations as NASTY.

Sewage flowing from large commercial and shopping malls down hill into poorer places of the urban vulnerable groups.. sewage moving freely with knowledge of the city authority.! sewage moving from the blocked and narrow sewer lines that were established during colonial days.! it is still a long journey..

 It took me much longer while looking at solid waste management, but again not contrary to the above! it was no shock.! The daily trend of people throwing plastic bottles in drainage channels, the bitter taste of watching someone throwing polythene through a window screen of a Mercedes or even a Prado V8. 

The mentality of backwardness still prevails..

Upon walking for so long, I became so much exhausted and got tired of pretending that am stronger: at that point, all I wanted was a resting place: 

Fellow Urbanists, all I wanted was an open space to sit and relax my mind, to kill the fatigue.. Oooh my God: the closest open ground was freedom square (at clock tower).. which is out of the public accessibility.. what kind of city is this with open spaces that are not accessed freely.! then I remembered when mentor told me the difference between "availability and accessibility."

The untold story of the prodigal son.! All of a sudden, it started drizzling with small drops of water, all arcade workers begun locking there respective shops running towards different directions.. I was left perplexed standing in the middle of dispersing masses, stranded like a villager who lost direction on his first trip to the city center.! I only wondered why people were running because of rain.! 

In a blink of an eye, many shops where locked and taxi parks were loaded instantly, all transport routes ran into jam.! the true character of an African town portrayed with immense unease.. The coming of rain marks the end of the day's activities to many in Kampala due to the fear of a flood wash.! 

NB: City planners, Health inspectors and engineers, we owe you better.! 

Let me not proceed to the pollution and the traffic flows I observed. City planners need to establish core solutions towards the increasing car usage in town and reducing distance through inducing taxes and encouraging mixed land uses.! 

There is a need to sensitize the masses about our objectives. 

like and share our page.! 

*Widen the discussion table - The old taxi park*

By Rahim Lubadde

Debates to remove and or reduce the number of taxis and boda bodas from the city center, create more cities, municipalities and town councils within the country have formulated one of the fundamental discussion topics in relation to physical planning and urban development in the Ugandan Legislative Assembly/Parliament for the recent weeks in addition to the 10billion Saga and the torture of Hon. Zaake Francis. Nonetheless, there are more barren brains in Uganda than the efforts to unveil them. Their momentum has gone though they creak and thoughts still tumble as years pass. They are being boiled by the subsidizing heat from the unhuman self-proclaimed and creamy thinking fellows. Everyday querying themselves whether God forgot about Uganda but all debates have continuously led to the same conclusive cowardice. History will judge me from a selfless point of view- I have and continue doing my work of sensitizing through my literature. 

Much as our city and transport planners plot to revitalize the chocked nature of our urban transport; through strategizing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), fly overs, the urban green transport of cycling and walking., there are key aspects that need to be considered. They prove to be coming out from the social aspects of humanity and the natural rights that everyone living and working in the city owns. Not to bur from the topic, let me begin by cautioning whoever is responsible for Kampala City Transport Planning that “stakeholder consultations” are part and parcel of the initial stages of planning to seek acceptability from the natives and the politicians otherwise our plans will always remain resisted and on paper.  So, lets always embrace and respect people’s opinions. “… where political credibility is limited, overall social welfare falls and the benefits of public policy flow narrowly to the small group of citizens to whom rulers can make credible commitments’ (Keefer 2007: 2-4)

As a piece of reminder, we need to always begin with “what comes first” for instance we begin by establishment of the national transportation plans to regional to district to municipals to communities as the last stage. There is no any way we can begin from bottom to up in that regard because the former enlightens the later. For purposes of this article, there is a need for a #metropolitan_transportation_committee to emphasis on issues that affect the metropolis as a whole rather than a single segment of Kampala CBD.  While working on transport; we seek knowledge on three aspects of commuter zones, routes and destinations. Let’s not forget that people flowing into the city streets do not actually stay in within. Therefore, what makes us think that removing taxis will solve the traffic jam challenges in the city. I cant rule out the fact that *now* is the best time to regulate on who come back into the city but ‘may be’ we are not ready for the cause.  

As an Authority, KCCA needs to understand the cost of urban redevelopment and regeneration through taking gradual procedures. For instance; establish city exit terminals at the outskirts of the city to ensure that when the ‘introduced buses” set off from the CBD, there is a station where they leave the passengers and then they proceed out by taxi. These sub-terminals at the outskirts shall in the first place restore the “the falling out hearts” of urban taxi drivers, reduce the number of taxis through design with minimal resistance and provide an equivalence in job creation: i.e. if there is a transport terminal in places like Zana, Kawempe, Bulenga, etc. where people can easily change the mode, all taxi drivers would be directed to these places and there will be no or minimal resistance. Many times, it’s not about compliance or divergence for urban policies to work but also the component of equality must prevail for the betterment of everyone. The problem of the city transport system should be looked at a wider scale rather than the removal of the old taxi park. 

The more roads and services that are implanted within the city are responsible for the increasing level of travel destinations and hence more travel demand. Therefore, fear lies intrinsically within me that the billions of public funds coupled with the international loans from China that are being used to construct fly overs, multi/national offices and large commercial buildings will attract more people into the city and hence more traffic problems and yet the closure of the taxi business will stimulate hiking unemployment levels, vandalism, and fragility. At the end, KCCA shall have failed to deliver with policy incoherence and inadequate performance. Nonetheless, as the city ruling Authority, KCCA must develop and coordinate broader integration frameworks that are underpinned to urban planning, city-wide planning, and ensure the inclusion of marginalized groups and key stakeholders to encounter its transport trials. 

As a consequence, given an opportunity through my pen, let me pose a query to the Director of Physical Planning and the Head of the Engineering section of KCCA before a decision is undertaken that “How did the following terminals end up in the middle of the city and yet they transport people miles away from Kampala; i.e. Kisenyi Bus terminal and Link bus terminal(responsible for Chaos in Kisenyi), Arua park(responsible for Chaos along Bombo road ), Namayuba bus terminal(responsible for Chaos along sir Apollo Kaggwa road, Martin road and Gadaffi road ), Mash Poa terminal(responsible for Chaos in Kibuli), Old Kampala terminal (responsible for traffic along Namirembe road, sir Apollo Kaggwa etc.) Why would a passenger going to Fortportal or Kasese by bus pass through the city center to access a Link Bus?  This should also be worked on through relocating the bus terminals to further away from the CBD. Remember, am not here to rebel and or cause havoc to the works undertaken by KCCA during the crisis but to add directly to the ministerial works of the National Departments responsible for transport, housing, urban growth and development and also to sensitize the public about the value in urban planning and policies.

Finally, credit must be given to the road naming projects that ease orientation within the city, urban smart walkways along Namirembe road and Luwumu street, the CCTV camera security program, street lighting, urban green, the introduction of internet applications like safe boda, uber, Bolt, street maps, etc., the great city flyover under construction around clock tower and many other government projects that have been set to reduce traffic jam in the city center though all parties must understand that more than 80% of the people living and working in the city do not drive. 

The writer is a physical planner

lubadder@gmail.com 

 *city planning Uganda*

COVID-19 CHALLENGES URBAN NATURE

Planning Ug

April 09, 2020

lubadder@gmail.com

Covid-19 challenges Urban Nature: (Kampala)

CUSTODIAN. We are the custodians of Planning Ug Facebook page, City Planning Uganda Blog and Urban Planners by profession. Our major focus is to bring up Physical Planning and Environmental concerns to Urban Authorities and the public especially those that have been neglected by the concerned parties. 

Author: Pln. Lubadde Rahim

Physical Planning Trainee

 As the world continues to live in the “Covid-Phobia cycle”, can we credibly appreciate nature? I believe that most of us here do not consider the daily misappropriations that humans deliberately play in disguise of attaining better lives and cities. When it’s all over, the world will never be the same, the urban system of living will change. This is not for you to accept, but to reference when that time comes. All 1st and 3rd world countries will formulate new urban paradigms that will prepare them for any future pandemic with vigorous sustainable urbanism being considered as a key aspect in urban planning and design. 

I write to contribute to environmental management in Uganda and dedicate this piece to Planner Nyakwebara Charles of Praid consultants and Planner Lukyamuzi Matia of Makindye Ssabagabo M/C. It is not out of antagonism that nature musters back to jiggle and giggle at us but rather due to the smallest urban components relating to sustainable development that have not been given a heed by urban authorities yet for the first time in human life 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Cities set different strategies to ensure that unbuilt areas develop fundamentally and sustainably but it is also significant to understand that many people around these cities care about the quality of life in their own context. Urban planners and environmental focal personales have to work extra harder for sustainable urbanism to thrive and to consider the human element for a proper understanding of how it affects the livability and nature of Ugandan towns. There is also a need to embrace innovative research to track their output and impact towards sustainability and livability in urban landscapes.

   The challenges affecting urban life are both simple and complex to comprehend ranging from the influx of individuals and families who have continued to confront cities in a search for livelihood to the destruction of urban green fields to establish human settlements. This has resulted into the destruction of habitants and biodiversity.

The outbreak of the virus is an opportunity for us to change.

   From old Urban dimensions, cities across the globe have been left crime ridden, car infested, polluted, unhealthy and overcrowded centers of humanity which have today seen them deserted as people vanish away from different catastrophes--Today’s talk is Covid-19. However, am not sure if urbanist will concede this assertion that ‘City dwellers feel that the quality of the environment that they have lived and worked in cannot hold their lives any longer which is why they have left cities back to their original rural roots’. 

   “Nature knows best...”, we shall never know when to get ready for a challenge, but let today be the start of something new. Today nature is “laughing” at us for the failures – though we can’t wait to ‘miss the mark’ any longer. It’s been enough enjoying now, let’s begin achieving through concentrating on green towns, social justice, reduced emissions, non-motorized transport systems, green energy and other sustainable hypotheses. 

   Ever since the state declared National emergency and many public realms were shut, Kampala looks more like a ghost town than a bustling conurbation with empty streets and fewer people outside due to the outbreak of covid-19. Life has taken a new form with schools, movements, bars, entertainment centers, restaurants, shopping mall and gatherings banned. Seeing people move from Kampala to Masaka, Fortportal, Kisoro, Jinja etc. is a prehistorical trend that coexisted during the missionary epoch. Let’s not just look. 

           How have we been relating to nature in our city? is there chance for improvement before things get out of our control? 

   There has not been motives for biodiversity in Kampala where urban greenery has been put down for establishment of buildings leading to an increase in flash floods, high levels of pollution from old cars and unplanned factories. Today Kampala lives at the mercy of nature; it’s not known whether it will evolve with changing times or the pandemic will erode its life and success. The widespread social distancing measures have produced some jarring effects on land, air and water and the whole sense of belonging coupled with the usual hum of public life have all perished. 

   We could destroy the Earth, but ‘he who laughs last, laughs best” nature has its own way of dealing; we have all bowed down, no fumes from factories, no noise pollution, no cars on roads, no trains on the rails and no ship on water. The whole place sounds quiet and soft. The only voices coming out are echoes and/or sirens of either police vans, ambulances and health practitioners—All other professionals look insignificant in this era. It is not about how much you studied, the energy you have, your wealth and status; today nature decided genuinely a lock down. 

To see that the world has a total “unbearable--positive” decline in the amounts of emissions into air, land and water. It is, we say, a strange spectacle, and the strangest part of it is that all the while, humanity has been a basis for judgment and decision making irrespective of the worst and wildly neglect of all forces that fight for the wellness of our urban natural forms with limited funding, corruption and human resource.

    Much as civilians roll unwillingly and reluctantly to vacate workplaces, move long distances back to the countryside, look at the country’s economy downsizing and witnessing the urban poor die of hunger in their squashed houses, the sub-sequential goodness of it all is that the environment is winning. Whenever we experienced a flood wash, landslides, decline in the water table, global warming and other naturally compelling catastrophes; they were triggers to remind us rethink on the direction of urban life that we had taken. 

   We are here today to observe how nature has wholesomely taken jurisdiction of its course to redirect and recommend its fortune. We cannot contradict the underlying facts that the world economic sphere has crashed and the ‘unseen environment is chanting in flowers.’ And by the time it’s all over, a lot will have transformed. The quality of air we breathe, the number of people on the street, different tree species will naturally have grown in different places, some parts of the city will be abandoned for urban forestry and primates will emanate back to the city rolling up and down town.

You have been talking about a strong and sustainable economy, how crucial is that in strengthening our relationship with the environment? 

   Here is a binary chance drawing nearer, nonetheless if we uncertainly move back to the city with the usual wide-ranging personality that lacks a natural context inbound, we are guaranteed to face perpetual clashes with the natural environment than ever before. A fortune to embrace all environmental projects that we have dreamt of before and to recreate our image as the pearl of Africa. 

What are the priority areas to begin with?

Green Belts, Non-Motorized Transport (NMT), Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Green energy plants etc. being the only traditions through which we can give back to the natural environment. A new mindset with insignificant human impacts on nature; sparing public open spaces, wetlands, forest reserves and reduction on machinery vibrations. 

To the urban authorities, here is the spot-on time for you to regulate who comes back to the city against who remains in the metropolitan. Debates on factories, land uses, pedestrians, taxis, matatus, boda-bodas, mini-buses, private vehicles, the location of their respective stages and their areas of operationalization should have begun ‘yesterday’. These have been drivers of urban sprawl with related larger distances between residences, jobs and other frequent daily trip destinations and greater intervention in a series of key environmental processes. We hope to see green urban transport and road pricing systems, minimum parking requirements in new developments as introduced smartly into the city. 

            What are some of the issues that can be worked on before we let people back to the city?

   As we prepare to flow in yet again, let there be remarkable long waves of urban reforms that will not only be positive to the natural environment but also promote aesthetics, mobility and health within the city. Let there be a gradual promotion in the daily urban challenges that urbanists have faced before; including proper waste management, drainage, noise and air pollution, reduction in vehicle and human traffic, and others. Let there be massive sensitization and call for participatory approaches towards the cause. Let it be a collective responsibility for all stakeholders to maintain a better city and finally let us use all our investments appropriately for a better Uganda since we have witnessed that no amounts of bullets, teargas, nuclear energy and machinery can overthrow nature if it decides. Let the depictions of this article be taken with more than a ‘grain of salt’ since natural features are laughing at man for believing that he owns the land. Nature laughs because it knows clearly that it owns us and therefore it knows best- we are only stewards of its creation.

Good-bye note:

   Nature is part of sustainable urbanism and without it as the base through which all sectors perform their mandate, we shall keep fighting with it – it will always win.

NB: According to the United Nations - 2030 agenda for sustainable development- Transforming our world: “we are reminded to be determined to protect the planet from degradation including through sustainable consumption and production  and sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent actions on climatic changes so that it can support the needs of the present and future generation.

NB: Despite the fact that nature is taking the precedent, Urban Planners, Engineers, Businessmen, Environmentalists, Surveyors and land managers are locked down in their posh houses that not even their cordial cars can move within the city. It has always cautioned us but it was so hard to comprehend. Nature in action.

“The writer is a Physical Planner” 

Please respect the copy rights of this document- ***Non sponsored content***

Credit: Cheryl Dossey “The Earth Laughs in Flowers”

Email: lubadder@gmail.com

Facebook: Planning Ug

THE PANDEMICS VERSES PHYSICAL PLANNING

By LUBADDE RAHIM

lubadder@gmail.com

April 2020

Be merciful to me, Oh God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. (Psalm 57:1-2)

A mistake in the lab costs the world life and money.

The ever-proliferating number of Covid-19 victims across the global lining has fancied me into writing an article on how Physical Planning profession stands out as a unique component in facilitating public health and reducing pandemics of different origins. The basic role of Physical Planning is to create convenient, equitable, efficient, health and attractive centers for a future. 

Today, the government of Uganda has most emphasized it verbally but putting less efforts in funding through limited human resource, no identifiable physical planning departments in local government and less corresponding enforcement. Where by the work of planners is placed under Engineering, Works, Environmental, Natural Resource sectors forgetting that all these are directed by Physical Planning. It should be noted that the epicenter of Urban/Physical Planning is a “Master Plan” which manifests its self in different phenomena for instance, community planning, comprehensive planning, action planning, disaster preparedness planning and overall city planning. This is always reinforced with utmost enforcement to ensure that all the plans are implemented as proposed. 

Physical planning is a blessed profession for its never a stunt; it cuts across our livelihood, that even other professions require it for their survival. It shares common objectives with Public Health since both aim at improving the wellbeing of our subjects. Tools of urban planning are significant in maintaining the health of our people/communities for example GIS. This was first introduced by John Snow who was tracking the outbreak of Cholera in London during the 1850’s. In that way, it’s very easy to track the origin and/or the spread cycle of Covid-19. To a greater depiction, urban planning has been used to create compatible cities, improve sanitation, aesthetics and creating organized neighborhoods. Its only on advantage of organized communities that they are able to fight against pandemics faster, ensure that supplies reach all places as required. Many of our communities are slummy, disorganized, congested and lack connectivity in-that during cases of emergency some of our areas are totally impenetrable. China has recorded less cases of Covid-19 in the recent week because the management and delivery of supplies was easier due to the planned nature of cities which might not be easier for Kampala due to the congestion issues that are vexing us up. Cases of Katwe, Ndeeba, Kabowa, Bwaise, Mulago and others can easily run into a complete state of susceptibility in a manner that makes it difficult for inhabitants to be helped during pandemics as compared to areas of order like Muyenga, Naguru, Lubowa and Munyonyo among others.

If there is any more other reason apart from self-centeredness that we as a third world country need to have healthy communities, then Physical Planning dimensions need not to be left out at all stages. Calamities and natural disasters are a form of contingency negative attributes that show gaps in our planning sector. Uganda needs to do better, from a pothole in the road to housing as an entire sub-sector. The recent Bududa landslides that left many homeless and others losing lives, the former Ebola outbreak in the East, the slummy conditions of our capital, the recent massacre of Moslem clerics, business men and great politicians are all upshots of a failed Physical Planning system.

Let this be another great reason for us to aim higher. To rethink and refurbish new ideologies. Let us act than ever before, let us reinforce our relationship with the environment, let us act as if we are leaving this earth. 

NB: We need to think of a collective solution; one for a future

The blame game should not be the master of our generation. This is a foreign virus that is being carried into the black continent by our colonial ‘gods’. Safety measures are supposed to be a daily perquisite for living. For example, the wide roads aimed at ensuring that all properties are easily accessed for emergencies like disease outbreak etc. Supplementary functionalities locating close to each other to reduce distances travelled to access basic needs. As urbanist, as physical planner, we must in all ways show our relevance in all situations concerning the wellbeing of people and always put in mind the following questions:

Can we easily transport covid-19 suspects and supplies including medicines and food to hospitals and people’s residences respectively? 

Are our health facilities distributed as per the demand and equity? 

Can business thrive in areas of the pandemic basically the informal sector and support businesses?

Is there a well-coordinated urban system that can easily be used to monitor suspects including cameras, street lighting etc.?

Are there facilities for passive leisure in terms of open parks where government can stage urgent camping sites for treatment of patients and assembly of hospital equipment in case of an increase in numbers?

Now that the pandemic is here for us, with us forever and we have nowhere to hide. The street is our home, its where most of us get food. We must position ourselves in a manner that gets us prepared to either withstand or walk out without or with less damage. Our subjects are counting on us(professionals), our leaders too are out of ideas; But much as we call ourselves urban planners, we need to be visionary thinkers to always come up with ideas on how to curb the trending disease. This is a lesson to Uganda, to streamline a system where all citizens, families and friends can be monitored. Imagine if government knows where everyone in the country lives; it could be easy for it to track all passengers who came back from Dubai and other infected countries. 

Here seated on my laptop fathoming about how government could close up some roads in case the pandemic attacks some areas and are put under quarantine? It difficult to close them because our towns have got so many unplanned inlets and outlets. 

Planned cities can help coupe with disease outbreak and cases of emergencies including fires, earthquakes, landslides etc., therefore our government needs a greater strategy through which it will get rid of the impending catastrophe. Covid-19 is not the last one of the kinds; we have to aim higher. The garden city approach of urban design and planning argues boulevards and city rail systems that identifies cities from each other. A city that is boarded by a physical component is in itself protected from intruders in case of emergencies. This is not the case of Kampala with an overwhelming rate of urbanization, it’s very uneasy to trace the boundary of Kampala without a ‘map’.  The pandemics have seen a negative shift in urbanization i.e. urban to rural where more people are going upcountry and leaving the city empty. Everyone is living in phobia that even as I press my laptop to put up this article, I have no self-confidence of surviving the Covid-19 pandemic.  

The general public is reminded to consider washing hands regularly, don’t touch your face before sanitizing; Stay safe in your homes; stock foodstuff and some medicines; keep the elderly away; avoid unnecessary movements; halt gatherings and trust no body because everyone is a victim. (as guided by the Ministry of Health) We shall finally overcome.

There is no assurance that government will easily provide supplies to all families across the country not because it lacks funds but because of lack of a system of coordinating our people. We need to stay vigilant, and report all those who are showing signs and symptoms. 

National housing needs to take on a role in providing housing to the people such that next time when we have issues of Quarantine, shelter is provided freely. The ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development is the master of all building, land ownership and Physical Planning in the country. The task of providing housing to the people in Uganda should be placed ‘back’ in custody of the above ministry. 

The Master Plan

Consequently, the president of Uganda (Mr. Museveni) has also failed to stop public transport in the city to prevent the vicious spread of the pandemic and in his own words, “If the city had enough bicycles, I would have suspended public transport…” The presidential statement is a direct manifestation of a poor transport strategy that KCCA has utilized over the recent past. We need an environment where work proceeds with availability of the disease. Covid-19 is not the last infection, others will come and numerous will die but the question will always remain: what have we done as a country to get prepared of the natural disasters and pandemics. The need for Urban planners and Physical planners will always manifest in all challenges that we face as a country whether unemployment, security, development, political. 

(Non-motorized transport as an alternative to taxis and buses)

Finally, there is a need for government to pave way in municipalities, town councils, districts and cities across the country to employ more physical planners in that regard and as well to task them to perform as expected. It is also important to note that fighting for proper, organized, compatible, healthy and attractive cities is role of urban planners and designers.

The writer is a physical planner