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Developing cities urged to embrace climate change resilience methods

Saturday January 09 2016
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A road under construction through Kibera slums in Nairobi. Human development blocks natural drainage in most African cities. PHOTO | FILE

Inside a wide channel in the Kyebando slums in the outskirts of Kampala city, dirty water flows. But the flow is obstructed by the clogged drainage system.

A number of pit latrines stand on platforms above the channel. Residents say the platforms help to keep the latrine effluent in check whenever it rains, since the runoff flows into their houses and business premises, raising the risk of an outbreak of waterborne diseases like cholera.

“In order to cope with the floods I have built two dykes,” said a middle aged woman who owns a shop in the area. “When there is an overflow of water, the second dyke stops it from getting inside the shop.”

Habiba Nanteza who operates roadside kiosk said the rainy season is a nightmare, and children are not safe in the area.

Human settlement

“The schools especially the ones that belong to the Kampala City Council Authority often release children to go home just as it is about to start raining, then they wade through the floods to reach home,” she said. “As for me, once the rain threatens, it is time to close business and headhome. My work place becomes unsafe because vehicles passing by often end up in the drainage when it floods.”

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The story of Kyebando resonates with that of many city slums across the East Africa, which are characterised by poor planning, degraded ecosystems amid a growing urban population.

To make matters worse, countries have failed to implement city master plans, resulting into disorganised spaces with poor drainage systems which make them highly prone to the risks associated with climate change.

City masterplans are important tools that put into consideration the quality of life of residents, making provisions for proper settlement and investment areas as well as ecosystem conservation.

Kampala for example, is surrounded by numerous wetlands that act as filters for water flowing into Lake Victoria. But a number of them like the Kyebando slums have either been reclaimed for settlement or industrial development. This has interfered with the natural water ways, leading to flooding — one of the biggest climate change nightmares that Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) is grappling with. 

But according to the KCCA executive director Jennifer Musisi, there are plans to demolish buildings constructed on wetlands and that no more approval of constructions on wetlands will be made.

“In the next five years, KCCA will redesign and reconstruct four of seven major drainage channels to ease water flow, and also channel water to reservoirs in low-lying areas for cleaning the city,” said Ms Musisi. “This way, we shall stop using treated water from National Water and Sewerage Corporation which is not only expensive, but wasteful too.”

Like Uganda, flooding is also common in Tanzania, according to Colman Titus Msoka, of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Dar es Salaam.

While the country failed to implement the city master plan drawn from the colonial days, it is developing a new one. 

“A large part of the city [Dar] is not planned and natural drainage systems are blocked by human development, resilience of the city to disasters is very low,” said Mr Msoka during a climate change conference in Kampala recently.

A 2013 World Bank report on climate change adaption shows that urban dwellers are responsible for close to 80 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions through activities like ecosystem degradation and industrialisation.

The report titled “Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts and the Case for Resilience,” estimates that 80 per cent of the expected $80 billion to $100 billion per year in climate change adaption costs is expected to be borne in urban areas.

Among the factors that contribute to global warming are air pollution from automobiles, industries and dust, calling for  mitigation measures. On its part, KCCA plans to reduce the number of commuter taxis that emit carbon. In addition it is piloting energy saving through the use of solar panels to light the streets.

Climate experts warn that  if the world warms to 2 degrees centigrade, there would be wide spread food shortages, unprecedented heat waves, floods and more intense storm resulting from the climatic changes.

“Cities have to adopt to urban planning, control urban sprawl and design strategies to better respond and adapt to the economic, social and physical stresses linked with the challenges of increasing energy scarcity, climate change and population growth,” said Ms Sophie Makame, the French ambassador to Uganda, who hosted a series of climate change dialogues in the build up to the climate talks that took place in Paris in December. 

At the talks, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal which is intended to keep temperatures below the 2 degrees centigrade. The deal comes into effect in 2020.

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