Floods paralyse Kampala suburbs

Apr 05, 2006

HUNDREDS of houses and shops yesterday flooded in Bwaise and Kalerwe, Kawempe Division, following an overnight downpour.

By Chris Kiwawulo

HUNDREDS of houses and shops yesterday flooded in Bwaise and Kalerwe, Kawempe Division, following an overnight downpour.

The floods also left residents’ property destroyed and several parts of the cleared site for the construction of the Northern By-Pass filled with water.

Ms Salini, the contractors of the by-pass, recently complained that flooding, especially in the wetland parts of Bwaise, had delayed their work.

At some point, the workers were forced to empty water from the site using high-suction pressure water pumps.

Water spilled over the Bwaise-Rubigi and Kibe water channels that were filled with garbage, mainly polythene bags and used water bottles into buildings.

This forced business to come to a standstill in Bwaise trading centre as water submerged most shops. Happy Hours Nursery school was also flooded.

Kawempe Division chairman Nasser Takuba recently said flooding in the area would soon become history, as plans to enlarge the Lubigi water basin where major water channels traversing Kawempe empty their waters, were underway.

Takuba, however, partly blames the flooding in the division on residents who dump garbage in the water channels, forcing water to break the channel banks.

He said Katanga, Nakamiro, Nsooba and Kiyanja water channels would also be enlarged to avert flooding that has wreaked havoc, including killing people and destroying property.

The division that put in place a disaster committee to handle floods also appealed to the disaster preparedness ministry to come to their rescue.

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