Wakiso to demolish buildings without approved plans

Wakiso. Wakiso District authorities have given owners of buildings without approved construction plans up to three months to have them approved or the buildings be demolished.
The district engineer, Mr Sam Mwesigwa, said the three-month deadline became effective last month to allow authorities follow up their unapproved plans at the district.
“According to our records the district has already recorded 578 buildings whose owners commenced construction works before their building plans were approved,” Mr Mwesigwa said in an interview with Daily Monitor last week.

He said the plans were submitted by architects who misled their clients to start construction before their plans were approved.
According to Mr Mwesigwa, after the deadline, the old building plans will be cancelled and the applicants will submit fresh plans.
He said the district chief administrative officer, Mr Luke Lokuda, has written to all architects companies tasking their engineers to follow up all building plans submitted for approval and ensure they are approved as soon as possible.
“As local government we need development in our district but we also need taxes. That’s the reason our officers are giving more time to people to have their plans approved to save their buildings from demolition,” he said.

“We don’t need our people to lose their buildings/investments, that’s why the district placed adverts in Daily Monitor a few months ago to let the public know the status of such structures. We advertised more than 578 buildings which commenced without approved plans and we hope to pull them down if their owners and their architects fail to comply,” Mr Mwesigwa added.
He said the illegal buildings have caused huge financial loss to the district.
“According to our records, the district is losing about Shs3.7 billion annually in unapproved building plans. So we have started an operation to track all engineers and locals who construct without approved plans,’ he said.

The district engineer revealed that between August and December 2017, Wakiso lost close to Shs200m to unscrupulous engineers who issue fake building plans to developers.
He said majority of the structures that lack approved building plans are in the new municipalities of Nansana, Kiira and Makindye/Ssabagabo while others are in Wakiso, Kyengera Town Council, Katabi, Kakiri and Masulita town councils.
Mr Mwesigwa said after the expiry of the ultimatum, the district will dispatch a team of field officers to ascertain whether developers have complied.

Recently, Mr Mwesigwa said the number of developers seeking approval of their building plans reduced by 30 per cent, blaming the decline on the increasing number of unscrupulous engineers.
In 2017 about 20 people were arrested and some were prosecuted for issuing fake building plans to developers.

According to Mr Mwesigwa in the 2018/19 Financial Year, the district expects to collect more than Shs3 billion from approved building plans, but added that they are likely to raise half or less of the projected amount due to noncompliance by some developers.
The district physical planner, Ms Edith Nakatudde, said the process of reviewing and approving a building plan takes the district between two weeks and one month and Ms Nakatudde wondered why many developers do not want to follow the process.

The Wakiso District traders chairperson, Mr Vicent Kasozi, welcomed the decision to compel locals and businessmen to have their building plans approved but urged the district authorities to make the process swift. “We shall also help the district to sensitise our traders and locals about the advantages of approving their plans before commencement of construction,” Mr Kasozi said.

Getting a building plan approved
For commercial constructions such as storey-buildings and factories, besides the basic construction requirements, one must have an Environmental Impact Assessment certificate from National Environment Management Authority, a traffic impact studies certificate which evaluates the transportation impact of land development proposals, geological structure studies, clearance from the factory bodies, waste management proposals and engineering supervisory agreements as well as assessments.

For residential and other small buildings, one needs to prepare two copies of architectural plans, two copies of structural plans certified by either a registered engineer or an architect and genuine land title.

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