{UAH} We need to decongest Kampala

By Bbiira Kiwanuka Nassa

Lately, Ugandans have begun celebrating ghetto life. Initially, the role of leaders was to ensure no ghettos and slum develop in any urban place.

However we should ask ourselves whether the proposed new cities will escape development challenges Kampala faces.

To realise the cities we all adore, there must be a deliberate plan to decongest Kampala and avoid creating similar situation there.

Kampala is characterised by acute traffic jam, floods, noise, disorder, hawkers trading everywhere, ghetto life, slums, poor drainage, fake goods and services, among others. A number of wetlands and forest cover have been destroyed as the city keeps expanding.

We globally committed that by 2030, Uganda will facilitate the development of sustainable cities and communities . We are expected to work and track progress on urban and inter-urban mobility, communities' infrastructures, buildings and shelters.

To achieve this, occupants of Kampala and planners for the new proposed cities may have to learn mitigation strategies for city crisis.

We all must play a role towards a better, sustainable and clean city we all admire, not just blaming political and technical leaders.

To reduce the traffic jam in Kampala we could launch the walking and riding bikes campaign.

Additionally, we need to embrace technology and reduce the need to visit offices for approvals and authorisation of documents.

Uganda Revenue Authority has successfully done this and we interface with it online. Going digital will require incubation centres. We need to generate innovative ideas and strategic products that enables city occupants utilise Information Technology and increasingly reduce the need to travel to the city for services.

Government can take radical but more practical strategies such as relocating key ministries, departments and agencies from Kampala as it adopts the Information Technology strategies.
Government and political leaders must decide on this. For instance, if some ministries shifted to surrounding towns such as Bwikwe, Kayunga, Wakiso, among others, Kampala's traffic jam and population would reduce.

The political risk is lower than the damage over populated Kampala and the new cities will cause to Uganda.

We can be excused for the mess in Kampala as we inherited an already small population planned town but never can we escape the future demands and challenges being apportioned on us in the new cities as we still have room to make them even better Let all of us work towards better and sustainable cities using Kampala as a prototype.

This, however, will require a deliberate plan to decongest Kampala and avoid creating similar mess in new cities. The opportunity is ripe for us to play a fundamental contribution. We must redesign our will to shape the cities we all cherish and admire.

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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