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Impact of the Changing Environment
Kampala City natural environment faces continued
degradation. The Biomass dynamics show a decline in
tree resources. There has been an increasing demand
for charcoal, with increasing pressure on neighboring
district tree resources. The wetlands also face
degradation for industrial and housing developments,
agricultural use, as well as pollution from industrial and
domestic waste.
Recent developments have seen the clearing of the
buffer zones of forests and open spaces, as well as
encroachment on the wetlands. Buildings and other
forms of infrastructure have replaced the forests, open
spaces and the wetland vegetation. The impacts of this
change have been far reaching. Most of Kampala’s land
surface in the built up areas is highly paved leading to
reduced water infiltration and hence to generation of
high storm waters. The storm water has of late caused
flooding in Bwaise and most low-lying areas of Kampala
City.
In a bid to fight the floods, a lot of drainage channels
have been placed and several widened to alleviate the
problem. The efforts have hardly solved the problem as
the constructed drainage channels have failed to contain
the heavy run off leading to continued floods.
Table 1: Land use and land cover, Kampala District
Uganda National Bureau of Statistics (UNBS) 2008
The problem has been exacerbated by heavy silt and
solid waste carried by run off from construction sites and
homesteads, respectively.
Government and Kampala City Council in particular,
should make efforts to solve the problem of floods in the
City. One of the options would be to identify and gazette
all critical wetlands and drainage systems that serve to
absorb and regulate storm waters.
Kampala is served by two major wetland systems namely
the Nsooba–Lubigi and Nakivubo Wetland systems. The
ongoing process of gazetting Nakivubo wetland system
for water attenuation and purification needs to be
finalised. A similar process should be undertaken for the
Nsooba – Lubigi wetland system to serve as a storm water
attenuation area. The long term interventions therefore,
would be to resettle people from the flood attenuation
areas and safe guard the natural drain pattern of the City.
Causes of environment changes in Kampala
•
Urbanisation
•
Wetland encroachment
•
Deforestion
This has resulted into increased runoff during the
downpours causing frequent flooding that are so rampant
in several places in Kampala.
Biomass
Land use/land cover Land use/land cover
km
2
%
Hardwood Plantations
0.31
0.16
Softwood Plantation
-
-
Tropical High Forest (Normal)
4.90
2.49
Woodlands
0.30
0.15
Bush lands
7.40
3.74
Grasslands
0.80
0.41
Wetlands
14.50
7.36
Subsistence Farmlands
69.00
35.05
Commercial Farmlands
1.22
0.62
Built up areas
81.50
41.37
Open water
16.80
8.55
Impediments
0.19
0.10
Total
197.00
100.00
Indiscriminate solid waste disposal in the Nsooba-Lubigi
water channel near Kalerwe market
NEMA 2008
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