KCCA names 68 flood hotspots in Kampala

CITY DRAINAGE 

KAMPALA - Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has identified 68 flooding hotspots across all five city divisions and has called for urgent intervention during the rainy seasons, write Juliet Waiswa and Gerald Tenywa.

Margret Semukutu, a resident of Central zone in Nalukolongo, Rubaga division in Kampala, is torn between two worlds. During the dry season, it is hot and dusty, but in the rainy season, floods take over. 

The rainy season always comes with the fear of drowning and diseases. Semukutu is also hopeful that Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) will honour their promise and fix Nalukolongo drainage channel that always directs water into their houses. Semukutu is one of the thousands suffering as the rainy season comes with riotous water, which causes floods in the low-lying areas of Kampala. 

The water comes from the leafy suburbs on the hills and encounters roadblocks or barriers in the roads with silted drainage channels. The drainage channels are sometimes too small to allow passage of water. 

In some cases, they are clogged with solid waste, such as plastics. This is what happened when rains pounded Kampala two weeks ago. 

“When the city was hit by floods two weeks ago, there was pandemonium. Due to the clogged drainage channel, water is diverted into our houses and our property gets destroyed,” Semukutu told New Vision. 

The floods also ended the lives of eight people in Greater Kampala and destroyed property worth millions of shillings. For example, they displaced pupils of Nateete Muslim Primary School from their classrooms.

Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago

Interventions 

It is against this background that KCCA has come up to list 68 flooding hotspots that city dwellers should be mindful of during this rainy season. 

The hotspots in all five divisions of Kampala affect schools, homes, factories, hotels, health facilities and supermarkets, among others. 

While presenting a status report on the challenges of the Kampala drainage system at City Hall, the executive secretary of planning and civil works at KCCA, John Mary Ssebuwufu, said 68 flood spots need urgent attention. 

The hotspots include Lugogo Bypass, Family Loaf Nateete (Rubaga), Mukwano Road (Kampala Central), Soya Buunga (Makindye), Ntinda factory close (Nakawa), Golf Course (Nakivubo) and Northern Bypass. 

There have been several attempts to address the flooding problems in Kampala. 
“In 2016, KCCA, with support from the World Bank, developed the Kampala Drainage Master Plan (KDMP) that highlighted key priorities for short, medium and long-term drainage improvement, but up to now, this has not been implemented,” Ssebuwufu said during his presentation. 

He explained that one year to the end of the implementation period of 10 years, KDMP has continuously been clustered under the unfunded priorities in the national budget. 
Ssebuwufu said the Government has not provided any funds towards the construction of the eight primary drainage channels. 

The World Bank, under the Kampala Institutional and Infrastructure Development Projects 2017, funded the construction of Lubigi Channel at sh62b and Nakamiro secondary channel at sh20b. 

There was concern that shoddy work was done on the Lubigi drainage channel.

Lord mayor’s concerns 

During a meeting on Thursday, Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago told journalists that most of the flood-prone areas were drainage channels and wetlands that have been encroached on by city tycoons. 

He said construction near Nakivubo Channel has worsened floods at St Balikuddembe market and Kafumbe Mukasa Road. 

Other areas encroached on by tycoons, Lukwago said, include Shoprite (Garden City), Munyonyo and Soya Bunga. 

“One of the major challenges facing the drainage system in Kampala is the rampant encroachment of the drainage channels and wetlands, largely by city tycoons,” Lukwago said. 

He said the implementation of the KDMP requires sh83.6b, which the Government is yet to provide. 

Lukwago said the money provided by the Government is not enough to cater for the maintenance of the existing drainage channels, save for this current financial year, where sh27b was allocated to drainage improvements. 

He said the allocation to KCCA in the next financial year (2025/26) is sh827b and nothing has been set aside for the construction of any primary drainage channel in Kampala.

Kampala’s primary channels 

Kampala has eight primary channels: 

• Nalukolongo (Rubaga) 

• Nakivubo (Kampala Central) 

• Lubigi (Kawempe), Kansanga (Makindye) 

• Mayanja Kaliddubi (Makindye) 

• Nalubaga (Nakawa) 

• Kinawataka (Nakawa) and 

• Walufumbe (Nakawa).

 Interventions 

At the beginning of last month, KCCA sealed off the box culvert at Family Loaf in Nateete, Rubaga division to have part of the channel widened. 

At Nalukolongo, water from parts of Rubaga, Ndeeba and Entebbe Road drains into the Lubigi wetland system. 

To mitigate persistent flooding in Nateete on Old Masaka Road in Rubaga division, KCCA began construction of a box culvert at Family Loaf on the Nalukolongo main drainage channel. 

The project will involve widening the channel and, authorities say, the road will be closed, which will significantly affect traffic flow in Nateete and surrounding areas. 
Nippon Constructors company and KCCA engineers are undertaking the works, Rubaga division mayor Zacchy Mberaze said. 

He said this has been long overdue and he wants the works near Family Loaf, which are expected to take three months, to be expedited. KCCA has, however, proposed deploying in-house teams, contractors and city youth savings groups to desilt all 68 drainage channels during the rainy season.

Assessment needed 

Richard Kimbowa, the Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development executive director, said in Kampala there is a relationship between the city’s hilly terrain and the downstream areas such as wetlands and lakes where water is stored after rains. 

He said a social and environment impact assessment study should be conducted before work starts. Kimbowa said Nakivubo Channel, which was widened two decades ago as a solution to end flooding, ended up causing floods in Namuwongo and Murchison Bay. 

“The Nakivubo Channel has become an eyesore as it carries solid waste and effluent to the lake,” Kimbowa said.