{UAH} KCCA - Check Greater Kampala Repercussions

Look closely at Greater Kampala – and its repercussions.

 

Urban regions can collapse – the reasons are; enormous dependant economies they generate, which demand equally the same amount of input to sustain these urban regions.

 

London, finally resolved that the city would not expand in its 25 km radius. What could not be done within the current London city space, can be shifted to other cities. Detroit in the U.SA. has finally collapsed and many more American mega cities are on their death roll.

 

Kampala might survive, since it is not solely founded as an industrial city, as it was with Manchester in United Kingdom.  Kampala though, will soon face water problems!

 

KCCA and indeed the Urban Development ministry can learn from the above developments. 

 

KCCA should move quickly to eliminate all motorised forms inclusive Bodaboda's and Matatus (mini Buses) from the City – sulphur in diesel and benzene, pumped out in the air on a daily basis, is the major cause for Lake Victoria pollution in addition to violation of the Water Act laws – in that connection, Nakivubo channel is an illegality.

 

My proposal therefore is optimal utilisation of resources:

 

1. A City should be small and manageable. How do you determine this? Computation of demographic data, employment patterns and over all economic growth and activities output can help.

 

2. The industrial establishments should be located between towns not in towns or cities. It implies industrial locations will have independent shared internal economies.

 

3. Reduce energy consumption bill by turning to green energy: buildings in the city should generate 80% of their electricity from the sun. E.g. all buildings should have solar panels. City hall should lead the way by installing solar panels.

 

4. Point two above, suggests therefore that KCCA should incite neighbouring towns, councils, municipalities to do exactly what is being done in KCCA in order to create economies of scale but also spread social and economic risks.

 

5. That too implies that there should be shared resources namely:
1. Generation of Electricity (street lighting, industry and domestic consumption)
2. Waste and garbage handling (Masaka – Mpigi-Entebbe and KCCA, Jinja - Mukono and KCCA, Luwero – Bombo and KCCA, Bujuko – Mityana- KCCA, Wakiso –Hoima – KCCA.)
3. Water resources (Kampala City Should start looking for alternative water resources instead of lake Victoria)
4. Telecommunication Infrastructure (telephony, internet, digitise television networks) – should be shared and run by corporate on behalf of Towns, municipalities, and cities.
5. Shared Industrial locations (Masaka – Mpigi-Entebbe and KCCA, Jinja - Mukono and KCCA, Luwero – Bombo and KCCA, Bujuko – Mityana- KCCA, Wakiso –Hoima – KCCA.) There is no reason why all supermarkets, fuel depots, goods warehouse and distribution centre Kikubo, vehicle: should be built in Kampala City instead of in between Kampala and nearby towns or municipalities.
6. Service industry should be shared goals and objectives among towns, municipalities and Cities.
7. Optimise Transport Economies – specifically Rail networks: Bujuko – Mityana- KCCA, Jinja - Mukono and KCCA, Masaka – Mpigi-Entebbe and KCCA

 

6. KCCA should be innovative: linking up with the industry specifically: Communication engineering, environment and tourism, water resources to diversify the economy. Lake Victoria is a great resource. 

 

7. Develop an Environmental and Cultural city instead of solely industrial based city. Fields like biology and cultural studies will be propelled. London one mile has more tourist than all game parks in Uganda on very one single day. In that respect the idea of turning Lubiri Place into an airport is cultural genocide.

 

8. Population dependant on KCCA resource should not exceed 70% of KCCA generated annual financial out

 

9. Encourage cooperative industry instead of private and single managed industry to increase vacancies and civic economic responsibilities and shareholding.

 

I hope therefore, KCCA technical committees will have time to study my arguments herein and also publish them for public scrutiny and critical evaluation.

 

Bwanika

 

Operations Director: Integrated Development Research and Consultancy. (www.idrc-ug.com)