Kampala pays as population growth beats housing availability
Kampala is experiencing a shortage of houses due to the rapidly growing population. According to Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), Kampala has a housing deficit 100,000. With the standard occupancy of 4.8 persons per housing unit, close to half a million people are not housed adequately. They are
By Frederick Womakuyu
Kampala is experiencing a shortage of houses due to the rapidly growing population. According to Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), Kampala has a housing deficit 100,000. With the standard occupancy of 4.8 persons per housing unit, close to half a million people are not housed adequately. They are squeezing in with relatives or friends because they cannot get a housing unit of their own, or they sleep in makeshift structures.
“This shows that many people in the city are actually homeless, leaving many in shacks in slums,†said Moses Wamala, a statistician with UBOS.
Figures from UBOS indicate that Kampala’s population increased by more than four times from 330,700 in 1969 to 1.6 million in 2008. The Bureau projects that the city’s population will swell further to 2.1 million by 2017.
With the housing sector lagging behind population growth, housing deficit in Kampala will increase from the current 100,000 to one million by 2025, says Wamala. This implies that in 17 years’ time, 4.8 million Kampala residents will be forced to either squeeze into other people’s houses, or sleep on the streets.
Currently, Kampala has 274,000 housing units, says Ahimbisibwe Tuhibise, Senior Statistician, Ministry of Housing, Transport and Communication.
“National housing and construction Corporation has managed to construct about 2,000 units. Three-quarters of the units have been constructed by real estate dealers and private developers like Akright and others,†he said.
But the problem goes beyond shortage of housing units. More than half of city dwellers live on less than sh1600 a day and to compound the problem, the minimum wage of Ugandans has remained at sh60, since the 1970s, making many people unable to afford decent housing.
In addition, the cost of constructing a building is beyond the reach of many people.
Wamala says that a single housing unit on average costs about sh100m to buy and between sh300,000 and sh400,000 to rent which is not prudent for both middle class city residents and slum dwellers.
“Most of the materials used are imported. For example, to make cement, there are some inputs that have to be imported and thus making the house expensive and beyond the reach of many people in the city,†he explains.
As the price of affordable and decent housing units becomes a preserve of the affluent, many people in Kampala are living in shacks.
A recent study conducted by Action Aid International indicates that there are about 1.5 million people living in slums of Kampala, inhabiting in a shrinking zone of tin and wooden shacks near rotting rubbish.
In one of Kampala’s earliest housing estates, Naguru, 7,000 residents are facing eviction to give way for re-development. But led by Alex Odur, the inhabitants are resisting saying they have no option.
“We agreed on developing the estate in phases but today the ministry has told us to leave. Where shall we go?†asks Odur. “The people would move into slums within the city,†he adds.
Despite the glaring problem, Kampala City Council (KCC) says it has no immediate plans for “upgrading the slumsâ€. The city’s slum upgrading project stalled due to lack of funds, according to the senior advisor, Peter Kyeyune.
According to a KCC planner who preferred anonymity, one of the problems is the lack of co-ordination between the various ministries that are attempting to deal with the problem.
“Today, one ministry comes up with this plan. Tomorrow another comes up with another plan, slowing housing development,†she said.
As if to worsen the situation, she adds that the issue of constructing houses has been left to the private sector and not government.
“Government liberalised the economy and with it, the housing sector,†she said.
Similar difficulties affect the environment of Kampala.
Kampala has failed to construct waste and sewage disposal facilities to keep up with increasing amounts of garbage and raw sewage generated by this ever-growing population. This has led to environmental degradation.
According to Dr. Kepha Nantulya, Environmental Consultant, Environmental Consultancy Services International (ECSI), Kampala generates an estimated 30,000 metric tons of solid waste per month.
The volume of waste has far outstripped the ability of municipal authorities to dispose of them in a safe and efficient manner. “Large amounts of untreated sewage discharged into wetlands have caused contagious diseases,†he adds.
Another problem caused by rapid population growth in the city is that more and more people are settling in the swamps, leading to easy flooding and diseases of poor hygiene such as cholera. “The entire wetlands in central Kampala have been cleared for settlement,†adds Nantulya.
Dr. Alice Mananu, visiting professor of environmental science, was alarmed by what she saw in Kampala. “If nothing is done immediately, the floods will increase more and more each year and the entire city could be below sea level in 50 years,†says Mananu, who lectures about environmental science at the Khartoum University in Sudan.
Unemployment is another problem resulting from the city’s rapid population growth.
With 209, 754, Ugandans unemployed, many of them young people living in the capital, the social problems are immense.
Prostitution, crime, narcotics and the exploitation of child labour are chief among them. Conservative estimates by ANPPCAN Uganda state that the country has 2.7 million child labourers, with more than half of them in Kampala.
Dr. Johnson Nkuuhe, the UNDP advisor on Millennium Development Goals, blames a rapid population grown that is not accompanied by good planning. “We do not have a housing policy. In the absence of such a policy planning is left to the individual. The individual has to get land and the money to invest in the building, which is too expensive,†he says. “The burden of getting a road, water and sewerage system is on the individual. The cheaper option, then, is to create a slum.â€
The rural-urban migration, he adds, is due to limited opportunities in villages. “In the city, that is where you find good schools, health facilities and better road networks yet in the rural areas we find many problems such as food insecurity,†he says.
He says in other countries, such as Mali, Government sets aside land; provides public utilities such as roads, water and electricity.
This attracts investors to build houses and sell to individuals. Banks, too, become motivated to provide mortgage.
Another solution suggested by Nkuuhe is to develop regional mini-cities so that rural-urban migrants do not have to go all the way to Kampala. He argues that people move to urban areas in search of opportunities.
All said and done, the trunk of a mature tree cannot be straightened. Some pin their hopes on the development of a new planned Kampala but Kampala’s problems will not go away that easily. Planning for Kampala will take another decade, says Nantulya and by then, Kampala’s population will probably be four million.
Additional reporting by Gerald Tenywa
Kampala is experiencing a shortage of houses due to the rapidly growing population. According to Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), Kampala has a housing deficit 100,000. With the standard occupancy of 4.8 persons per housing unit, close to half a million people are not housed adequately. They are squeezing in with relatives or friends because they cannot get a housing unit of their own, or they sleep in makeshift structures.
“This shows that many people in the city are actually homeless, leaving many in shacks in slums,†said Moses Wamala, a statistician with UBOS.
Figures from UBOS indicate that Kampala’s population increased by more than four times from 330,700 in 1969 to 1.6 million in 2008. The Bureau projects that the city’s population will swell further to 2.1 million by 2017.
With the housing sector lagging behind population growth, housing deficit in Kampala will increase from the current 100,000 to one million by 2025, says Wamala. This implies that in 17 years’ time, 4.8 million Kampala residents will be forced to either squeeze into other people’s houses, or sleep on the streets.
Currently, Kampala has 274,000 housing units, says Ahimbisibwe Tuhibise, Senior Statistician, Ministry of Housing, Transport and Communication.
“National housing and construction Corporation has managed to construct about 2,000 units. Three-quarters of the units have been constructed by real estate dealers and private developers like Akright and others,†he said.
But the problem goes beyond shortage of housing units. More than half of city dwellers live on less than sh1600 a day and to compound the problem, the minimum wage of Ugandans has remained at sh60, since the 1970s, making many people unable to afford decent housing.
In addition, the cost of constructing a building is beyond the reach of many people.
Wamala says that a single housing unit on average costs about sh100m to buy and between sh300,000 and sh400,000 to rent which is not prudent for both middle class city residents and slum dwellers.
“Most of the materials used are imported. For example, to make cement, there are some inputs that have to be imported and thus making the house expensive and beyond the reach of many people in the city,†he explains.
As the price of affordable and decent housing units becomes a preserve of the affluent, many people in Kampala are living in shacks.
A recent study conducted by Action Aid International indicates that there are about 1.5 million people living in slums of Kampala, inhabiting in a shrinking zone of tin and wooden shacks near rotting rubbish.
In one of Kampala’s earliest housing estates, Naguru, 7,000 residents are facing eviction to give way for re-development. But led by Alex Odur, the inhabitants are resisting saying they have no option.
“We agreed on developing the estate in phases but today the ministry has told us to leave. Where shall we go?†asks Odur. “The people would move into slums within the city,†he adds.
Despite the glaring problem, Kampala City Council (KCC) says it has no immediate plans for “upgrading the slumsâ€. The city’s slum upgrading project stalled due to lack of funds, according to the senior advisor, Peter Kyeyune.
According to a KCC planner who preferred anonymity, one of the problems is the lack of co-ordination between the various ministries that are attempting to deal with the problem.
“Today, one ministry comes up with this plan. Tomorrow another comes up with another plan, slowing housing development,†she said.
As if to worsen the situation, she adds that the issue of constructing houses has been left to the private sector and not government.
“Government liberalised the economy and with it, the housing sector,†she said.
Similar difficulties affect the environment of Kampala.
Kampala has failed to construct waste and sewage disposal facilities to keep up with increasing amounts of garbage and raw sewage generated by this ever-growing population. This has led to environmental degradation.
According to Dr. Kepha Nantulya, Environmental Consultant, Environmental Consultancy Services International (ECSI), Kampala generates an estimated 30,000 metric tons of solid waste per month.
The volume of waste has far outstripped the ability of municipal authorities to dispose of them in a safe and efficient manner. “Large amounts of untreated sewage discharged into wetlands have caused contagious diseases,†he adds.
Another problem caused by rapid population growth in the city is that more and more people are settling in the swamps, leading to easy flooding and diseases of poor hygiene such as cholera. “The entire wetlands in central Kampala have been cleared for settlement,†adds Nantulya.
Dr. Alice Mananu, visiting professor of environmental science, was alarmed by what she saw in Kampala. “If nothing is done immediately, the floods will increase more and more each year and the entire city could be below sea level in 50 years,†says Mananu, who lectures about environmental science at the Khartoum University in Sudan.
Unemployment is another problem resulting from the city’s rapid population growth.
With 209, 754, Ugandans unemployed, many of them young people living in the capital, the social problems are immense.
Prostitution, crime, narcotics and the exploitation of child labour are chief among them. Conservative estimates by ANPPCAN Uganda state that the country has 2.7 million child labourers, with more than half of them in Kampala.
Dr. Johnson Nkuuhe, the UNDP advisor on Millennium Development Goals, blames a rapid population grown that is not accompanied by good planning. “We do not have a housing policy. In the absence of such a policy planning is left to the individual. The individual has to get land and the money to invest in the building, which is too expensive,†he says. “The burden of getting a road, water and sewerage system is on the individual. The cheaper option, then, is to create a slum.â€
The rural-urban migration, he adds, is due to limited opportunities in villages. “In the city, that is where you find good schools, health facilities and better road networks yet in the rural areas we find many problems such as food insecurity,†he says.
He says in other countries, such as Mali, Government sets aside land; provides public utilities such as roads, water and electricity.
This attracts investors to build houses and sell to individuals. Banks, too, become motivated to provide mortgage.
Another solution suggested by Nkuuhe is to develop regional mini-cities so that rural-urban migrants do not have to go all the way to Kampala. He argues that people move to urban areas in search of opportunities.
All said and done, the trunk of a mature tree cannot be straightened. Some pin their hopes on the development of a new planned Kampala but Kampala’s problems will not go away that easily. Planning for Kampala will take another decade, says Nantulya and by then, Kampala’s population will probably be four million.
Additional reporting by Gerald Tenywa