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KCCA designs El Nino alert plan
Kampala- Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has outlined key plans to protect low lying city slums from the severe flash flooding effects that could be caused by the El Niño.
KCCA spokesperson, Mr Peter Kaujju, said on Monday a number of drainage systems have been undergoing desilting and others are being rehabilitated.
“We have worked on a number of key flood-prone zones such as widening drainage black spots on Kintu, Coryndon, Jjuuko - Kayemba roads,” Kaujju said.
He said drainage tributary channels have been widened and some fixed with new culverts. Other drainage improvements on Mayanja and Nkere channels, he said, are being completed to be able to drain surface water from the neighbourhoods.
“We have been carrying out route maintenance of Nakivubo and Lubigi channel and we hope the Nalukolongo drainage channel once completed, will contain much of the storm water within the neighbourhood,” he observed.
According to the KCCA 2014/15 ministerial statement to Parliament, Shs1.05 billion was committed to maintenance of drainage channels as a way of managing floods in Kampala.
Areas such as Bwaise, Nsooba, Kalerwe and Kinawataka are some of the many areas where dwellers have lost property due to heavy flooding.
Ms Joan Nakibule, 35, a resident of Bwaise, however, reported that despite several works to improve the area drainage systems, floods have continued to cause havoc.
“For the last two times it rained heavily at night, my house flooded, and we had to keep awake to avoid storm water taking our home utensils,” she says.
Ms Nakibule’s experience is one of hundreds of residents living in low lying Kampala slums that are predominantly occupied by low income families.
The Uganda National Metrological Authority (UNMA) recently announced that districts such as Kampala will experience torrential rain due to El Niño.
The rain, according to UNMA warning, is likely to extend up to February 2016.
The Minister for Disaster Preparedness has already warned several government departments to lay strategies to protect citizens from massive El Niño impacts.
Mr Joseph Ssemambo, a private physical planning consultant at World Bank, advised KCCA to start tapping into environmental friendly options to flooding in Kampala in the future.
“City authorities should start promoting rooftop water harvesting. The constant flash floods in Kampala are a result of untapped surface water that overwhelms the old drainage systems,” he noted.
Mr Ssemambo said majority of the Kampala drainage systems were designed in the early 1960s and need a massive overhaul to fit the rapid city development.
“It’s a problem that most of the greeneries in Kampala have been destroyed.
KCCA should promote greenery compounds within city suburbs to help reduce surface water that goes into the overstretched drainage channels,” he explains.
