By Oweyegha-Afunaduula.
But why so many municipalities ? Why so many cities? Can our economy sustain so many municipalities and cities in a post-Covid19 Uganda?
Ah ah. Can we have environmentally- sustainable municipalities and cities in the country?
The only city we have, Kampala, is not an environmentally- sustainable city. It has developed horizontally on the basis of destroying the natural environment: forests, swamps and rivers. Its now 22 or 23 hills, which were once fully covered by forests and sources of clean water for the people, are now bare rocks or punctuated with concrete in form of buildings. The swamps, which used to be sieves for the city are now punctuated with buildings of all types, including residences and factories. The city is frequently a recipient of flood water, for which it has no answers.
How differently will the municipalities and cities develop to avoid the environmental ills that Kampala is suffering on a continuous basis?
Kampala is a socially poor city. Still manifesting as if it is a colonial city, with local citizens more or less visitors on a daily basis, or largely confined to its peri-urban areas. It is largely insensitive to its local residents, with a soft spot for the rich and powerful. It depends heavily on the rural areas for its nutritional sustenance, but through the energy conduit (charcoal and firewood), the city is largely responsible for the destruction of the rural natural environments. How different will the new municipalities and cities relate to this he rural areas?
We need to ask what advantages or benefits many municipalities and cities have over a few municipalities or one cities?
It is important that the issue of municipalities and cities is rethought. It could be more useful to focus on developing one more city, if it is absolutely necessary. However, Covid19 seems to signal that we concentrate more on rehabilitation and rehabilitation of the economy and renewal the social sector than on the political erection of municipalities and cities. This must go hand in hand with conscious revival of our agriculture as the basic element of domestic production. However, we should not again entertain incessant borrowing from external money markets, which will sink the country further into the debt trap. We should as much as possible depend on our own natural resources, and if possible grants from elsewhere. We should not waste time, energy and money anymore in building political empires. All these resources must be deployed in boosting domestic production in environmentally sustainable ways.
That is, environmental development, rather than purely economic development should be the way for the post-Covid19 revival of the country in terms of domestic production that is not too dependent on others resources -intellectual, financial, industrial. Sustainability should be the goal. What are your views?
