MITYANA: Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba has said Mityana District is dogged by Physical planning challenges and the local authorities need to wake up to the task of organised planning.
Nabakooba who was on October 8, 2021 officiating at a training workshop for district leaders at Enron Hotel in Mityana Muncipality,added that now is the time to fastrack Mityana’s physical plans at least for the district and municipality to have them approved and also be put in place.
“We are going to look at the recommendations made here so that we see how we can work with the concerned people to plan for our area such that it matches up with the standards of a planned area,” she said.
According to Nabakooba, the Physical Planning Law of 2020 says every area is a planning area be it a town or a village because no one knows what tomorrow will be like.
She added that Parliament passed this law to guide people on proper physical planning.
“Water pipes, electricity and internet wires, have to be integrated in our plans, to avoid re-digging the area that might be already developed. We need to see that people building have plans because if one builds without a plan, they can easily build in a road reserve and end up hampering development.”
The Leaders in Mityana recieved skills in physical planning to help them manage land issues in the district.
The training was conducted by the Ministry of Lands yesterday October 9, 2021 to better equip them with the Physical Planning skills.
The training that happened at Enro Hotel in Mityana town was attended by the district leadership and the councilors representing the different cells in Mityana.
The leaders were trained in such skills as how to organise space on land for development in order to ensure coordinated, sustainable and orderly utilization of land.
Mr Jude Ssenteza, the Senior Physical Planner at the Ministry of Lands who led the training, said the training is driven by the need to equip these leaders with the knowledge in how to harmonize the limited/scarce nature of land with the conflicting, competing and ever increasing use of land for human sustenance.
He told the trainees that through physical planning, adequate provision of infrastructure, utilities and services like roads, electricity and housing to create a conducive, harmonious and livable environment for all is possible.
He added the old law had some enablers for this to be achieved but had since become innefective.
“Physical Planning in Uganda since the colonial times had been guided by the Town and Country Planning Act (T&CPA) first enacted as a Town and Country Planning Ordinance in 1951 and revised in 1964 as Town and Country Planning Act CAP 246. The major objective of the (T&CPA) was to promote orderly and progressive growth of towns and rural areas,” he says.
Ssenteza added that the Act was intended to work under a centralized system of governance where Physical Planning was to be carried out at the national level by the Town and Country planning Board (T&CPB) while the implementation and supervision to be done by the local authorities.
The Town Clerk Edward Muganga thanked the people from the ministry for the training.
“We have also learnt that getting the plans to build is also good and can be obtained at a relatively low price.”
He requested the ministry to help them secure a physical plan for the municipality through their (Ministry’s) different partners.
Mityana was given a municipal status and it became so urban.
Muganga hopes that with the plan in place, Mityana will be on the standards of embracing city status.
Gladys Nassaka, the councillor representing the elderly at the District shared that through the workshop, she has learnt the importance of the municipal physical plan.
She explained that the plan is important for towns to gain standards in different sectors like cleanliness, infrastructures and health.
Florence Nassolo, another councillor representing Kabule and Tanda Ward in Mityana shared that for long, a number of people in Mityana villages built without plans.
“If there is a municipal physical plan, people can make use of this one and buy these plans. If they buy them, government revenue increases which in turn enhances service delivery. The Government should continue conducting such workshops on land and urbanisation.”