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Uganda: Kampala Flooded By Overnight Rains
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New Vision (Kampala)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 28 March 2008
Conan Businge, Gerald Tenywa and Madinah Tebajjukira
Kampala
FOR the third day running yesterday, heavy rains battered Kampala residents. Business in the city came to a halt as the early morning downpour flooded markets, submerged shops and blocked roads in the city centre and suburbs of Bwaise, Kalerwe and Nateete.
Accompanied by strong winds and hail stones, the rains pounded the city, sweeping away houses, billboard and trees. The whole day, Kampala and the areas around the Lake Victoria basin were covered in a thick nimbus cloud, thunder and lightning.
The rains, which started on Easter Sunday, are expected to go on for the next two months, according to meteorologists. Inside Royal Complex building on Market Street, the flood waters were at the waist-high level of the workers. The building's electronic gadgets were also buried in water. Some of them could be seen floating on water.
"This is not the first time this building has flooded. Today, it is just worse. The management is aware, but is negligent," said a worker.
Most shop owners fought the floods, to save their merchandise. Buckets, basins and two generators were hurriedly procured to clear the building that had a sewage stench.
Most vendors, shopkeepers, and hawkers in the city suburbs, yesterday deserted their work stations, as the water swept into their buildings.
Some of the residential houses in slums were almost submerged, by the floods. At Kalerwe, the Nsooba channel was completely flooded.
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"I have lost all I had in my shop. I had several maize flour sacks and they are destroyed," explained Muhammed Kiyemba, a shopkeeper in Nsooba.
Several temporary houses on the Northern By-pass between Bukoto and Kalerwe were reduced to floating debris. In Nateete, latrine slabs were swallowed-up. Human waste could be seen floating away.
Dr. Aryamanya Mugisha, the executive director of the National Environment Management Authority blamed the floods on the poor drainage system. He added that the poor construction of the by-pass in a belt of wetlands was also responsible for floods.
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