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Floods of poor planning, impunity is what will sweep Kampala away

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Angella Nampewo

The first time I was caught in a rather scary urban flooding incident was at the old Owen Falls bridge in Jinja. One evening, having left work on the other side of the River Nile, I decided to cross the river via the bridge for some evening shopping.

It had rained but I could not have imagined the sight at the entrance to the bridge. After enduring a long queue in the traffic, I finally had a clear line of vision ahead, only to see for the first time raging flood waters high enough to submerge a small car. That ended my evening trip.

Years later, Kampala began to flood alarmingly. We had grown accustomed to the chronic Banda-Kyambogo, Clock Tower et al floods.

Slowly, the waters began to creep into shopping malls. A few weeks ago, an ambulance was swept into the drainage on Mukwano Road.

The November rains have shown us that we could be swept away; people, cars, merchandise and all.

As the flood levels keep creeping up, few, if any residents, are immune to this trend. Whether you attribute the floods to climate change, poor physical planning or rogue developers, the lack of foresight for any of those challenges is finally catching up to us.

Sadly, the already downtrodden and underprivileged traders in downtown Kampala or the long-suffering employees in the rat race are the ones whose wares and tiny vehicles are directly in the path of destruction.

However, as the floods claim more kilometres of the city, we shall all pay the price. No one will get to their destination on time, there will be more property damage for the city landlords to deal with and city infrastructure will be damaged.

Some public officials might even lose their jobs over future disasters, which do not seem very far in the making.

In April 2020, in the full glare of the city’s CCTV cameras, 56-year-old Cissy Namukasa was swallowed by Kampala’s floodwaters. Her body was not recovered for months. I cite this particular case because I felt so particularly touched that I got involved in something I had not done before, public interest law.

During the period of research for the court case that was opened against Kampala Capital City Authority, I found myself figuratively roaming Kampala’s drains and staring down the records at cases of often faceless individuals we had lost to Kampala’s floods.

The government and the city administration owe us a duty of care that they have abdicated for years and now that we are here, correcting the drainage problem seems like a mountain of a task akin to the garbage that buried residents in Kiteezi.

It will not end well. Every downpour in Kampala is now something to dread. Transport is disrupted, trade comes to a standstill and lives are at stake. We could come up with a thousand excuses as to why we are not to blame and it is all an act of God, but we have known for some time that Kampala is a city of many hills, valleys and swamps.

However, we have chosen to carry out our developments in disregard of that fact. Not only have we ignored Geography and Science, but we have done it with a heavy dose of impunity, leaving us at the mercy of the elements. 

It never rains, it pours, and it is pouring on Kampala this November. By the time the dry season arrives for us to dig ourselves out of this manhole, we will have felt the pelting.