Gulu City stakeholders trained on implementation of new Physical Development Plan

Gulu City, (UG): The Global Green Growth Institute has started training politicians, technocrats, private sector players, and civil society organisations in regional cities to implement the inclusive implementation of the Physical Development Plan.

In Gulu City, the three-day engagement, which started on Wednesday, the 27th, and ended today, Friday, the 29th, is being made to help stakeholders understand the details and spatial plan to guide the implementation of the new Green Physical Development Plan recently launched.

Speaking to DailyExpress in an interview, Ms Mariah Kizza, an Associate with the GGGI, said they are building the capacity of the stakeholders, which will enable them to find solutions to the challenges in the regional cities.

The key common challenges in most of the cities, according to Ms. Kizza, include waste management, land management, encroachment, and urban capacity.

Under this capacity-building project, GGGI is partnering with the Makerere University College of Architecture, Design, and Engineering to implement the capacity-building programme for the adoption of the new physical development plan with the support of the European Union’s Greening Uganda’s Urbanisation and Industrialization project.

During the ongoing activities taking place in Gulu City, Dr Barugahare John, lecturer at Makerere University Faculty of Architecture and Physical Planning, the lead facilitator, emphasises the need for the stakeholders to fully understand the importance and key principles of physical planning, land use management, and how spatial planning tools should be used to manage Gulu City.

According to Ms. Nakanwagi Rashida, from Urban Population Management and Informality at Makerere University, for Gulu City to become climate resilient, the city authority must prioritise activities that advance climate action, such as strategies to prevent greenhouse emission, population growth and environmental, and industrialization.

Many people are coming to Gulu City, and the population is increasing. We see green cover disappearing; how have you positioned yourself in all these in terms of energy use, environmental conservation, and waste management?” she emphasised during the discussion.

Mrs Joyce Aryemo Latigo, the acting environmental officer for Gulu City, said the engagement is handy because it will enhance their capacity as technocrats to manage Gulu City land use and waste management and lobby more partners and private sectors to make the City PDP see the future.

She noted Gulu City Council is concerned with the level of encroachment into the wetlands by up to 85 per cent due to human activities such as building, settlement, farming, and quarrying, which, if not tackled jointly, will render the city vulnerable to climate occurrences in the near future.

As per the Uganda Vision 2040 and the National Development Plan (NDP III), which call for appropriate adaptation and mitigation strategies to ensure Uganda is sufficiently cushioned from any adverse impact of climate change while at the same time promoting low carbon-intensive pathways, the environmental officer noted that Gulu City developed its five-year Climate Action Plan, which runs from 2022 to 2026 but is struggling to fully implement it due to resource constraints.

“We have limited resources, but we are partnering with development partners like CEEDs, GIZ, FITCHNER, and TakaTaka, among others. Some of them are putting resources into energy saving, tree planting in the city, and woodlots in schools to mitigate climate change,” said Mrs Aryemo.

Mrs Aryemo is proud of the trees planted along the wetland belts of Gulu City, including Pece stream wetlands, and the development of the Waste Management Plan at the Laroo Landfill by FITCHER.

Citing examples of institutions like schools, hospitals, and prisons and the urban population being the biggest consumers of biomass fuel, Aryemo believes lobbying for alternative energy sources like biogas, solar, and mini-grid connections in the city will reduce the pressure on the environment as electricity continues to remain expensive for most Ugandans.

As far as the management of solid waste is concerned, Ssenyonjo Andrew, a physical planner with the Ministry of Land, Housing, and Urban Development, has advised the city authorities to engage with the multinational companies dealing in plastic bottled drinks to find a win-win position because the city offers them a big market opportunity for their products, yet there seems to be no clear pathway to retrieve their plastic waste.

According to Mr Ssenonyojo, multinational companies like Rwenzori Mineral Water, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Hariss International Limited are the biggest pollutants of the urban environment with plastic waste.

Mr. Lambert Lameck Akena, the Deputy Speaker of the City Council welcomed the capacity enhancement engagement saying the new Gulu City PDP will add existing development but most importantly it will reorganize the City through zoning.

With the detailed planning, Mr Akena believed Gulu City will carefully enforce land use by placing development orderly to prevent future problems of mixing settlements, industries, and business hubs and transport networks, recreation areas among others.

The training is designed for the four regional cities with the new Physical Development Plan including Arua, Gulu, Mbarara, and Jinja.