Gen. Katumba Wamala wants law on water harvesting

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Work and transport minister, Gen. Katumba Wamala, wants a law requiring property developers to have rainwater harvesting systems in place enacted.

“I think we need to have a law where everybody developing and every house that is being constructed must do water harvesting,” he said on Wednesday, April 23.

He made the remarks while officiating at the opening ceremony of Uganda’s first-ever National Urban Development Conference on behalf of President Yoweri Museveni at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala.

The two-day conference that was organised by the ministry of lands, housing and urban development, brought together urban planners, policymakers, local government officials, private sector stakeholders, and development partners to discuss strategies for sustainable urban growth.

Water harvesting is the practice of collecting and storing water, particularly rainwater from rooftops, for later use.

“Somebody talked about how we are failing to do water harvesting and how it is affecting our roads, and I can tell you it is a big problem. If you see what happens on most of our roads. Murram comes onto the road and covers half the tarmac, and then everybody tries to find the tarmac, running away from the murram, and at the end of the day gets an accident,” the minister said.

He also said somebody made a funny comment that it is only here in Africa that when it rains, people leave the water to go down the valley, and when it stops, they send the children to go down the valley to fetch the water.

“And you ask: Why didn’t you collect the water in the first place? So, I think we need to find how to manage that runoff; it is terrible, it is killing our roads,” Katumba emphasised.

In August 2023, Tororo Municipality MP Yeri Apollo Ofwono mooted a law on compulsory rainwater harvesting and storage in the country, where he proposed in his draft Bill the imposition of a fine of 5,000 currency points (sh100m) on corporate companies that violate the law.

Gen. Katumba also used the occasion to note that the country is developing infrastructure and not planning for maintenance. “You find that every year the budget for maintenance is reduced, and yet we are developing new infrastructure. How are we going to maintain them?” the minister asked.

Challenges of urbanisation

Speaking at the same event, lands minister, Judith Nabakooba, said urbanisation in Uganda still presents the Government with a number of challenges, ranging from disjointed planning systems, an increase in urban poverty levels, weak urban economies, governance issues, and inadequate housing.

Other challenges include the proliferation of slums and inadequate financing, among others.

“These challenges have undermined the functionality and development of the urban areas in Uganda and thus act as deterrents to investments in these particular urban areas,” she said.

Stakeholders at the opening ceremony of Uganda’s first-ever National Urban Development Conference at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala. (Courtesy)

Despite the challenges urbanisation is presenting, Nabakooba said the Government has been steadfast and remains committed to providing conducive policy and legal frameworks that would facilitate orderly urban development in the country.

“These, among others, include the preparation of the National Physical Development, Regional Physical Development Plans for some regions, the formulation of the National Urban Policy, the Physical Planning Act 2010, and Physical Planning Act 2020 Amendment,” she said.

The opening ceremony saw Katumba launch the Road Design Manual Volume V1: Urban Roads. Huyen Phan, the World Bank Task Force Team leader, was one of those who received a copy of the manual from Katumba after the launch.