If you are looking for the most polluted city in China look no further than Linfen. Linfen is not only the most polluted city in China but also in the world. Actually a total of 16 out of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in China.

In this city almost every one is dieing of lung cancer because of huge amounts of coal plants there.

Have you ever been to the dirtiest cities on the planet? Cities where freely flowing sewage and rotting rubbish are part of everyday life; Cities where tons of garbage spewed out by scavengers and nearby residents battle scores of filth-borne diseases.

Uganda's capital city Kampala might be competing favourably among such cities. The capital city of Madagascar, Haiti, Mexico City and Beijing are also on board.

When Zhu Rongji was still a prime minister about 10 years ago he said that if you worked in Beijing you would shorten your life at least five years.     It's unfortunate that people would risk exposing themselves to such health hazards.

The fact remains that sometimes they have no alternative. A city like Kampala has air saturated by foul smell with water in the streams taking up an alarming rust-red colour.

Rainy seasons are characterized by flooding and possible outbreaks of water-borne diseases like Cholera which have claimed lives of residents. The small pollution particles continue to cause cancer and breathing problems.

There is no doubt that the rapidly growing urban population is partly responsible for this mess. The situation is accelerated by irresponsible city authorities that are busy battling with corruption scandals instead of planning for the city.

The era of shopping malls and today mushrooming arcades have contributed immensely to the filthy status of the city centre. An arcade accommodates close to 1000 people running a variety of businesses but with no toilets.

Those with toilets may have only two stances which even have poor sewage system. This causes pressure on the toilets making them flood through the cesspit tanks covers on the pavements and on the road especially in the evenings.

Kampala City generates over 800 tons of domestic wastes per day. Most of the dumping is done recklessly on the roads by the residents. The city council which has previously been responsible for collecting and dumping the garbage at Mpererwe has not performed to the expectations.

They also claim to have been incapacitated by the overwhelming and ever increasing city population coupled with lack of funding. We cannot of course forget that the City Hall is also a beehive for corruption and embezzlement which to a great extent explain the inefficiency in the city's waste management.

Carcasses of animals knocked down by vehicles will continue to rot by the roadside, owners of arcades and shopping malls will continue to rent out their buildings without toilets and reckless dumping of garbage by individuals will also continue because no body cares.

Finally as a result of failure to meet the World Health Organization ( WHO) standards Kampala will lose its status as a capital city. There is fear that health care costs and lost productivity due to diseases drag on business.

The congestion, human and vehicle traffic and the poor sanitation all bring about lost productivity. It is this very congestion in the city that attracts terrorism activities making any attempts to combat these activities unfruitful.
 
In September 2009 we heard that Kampala City was to start a new sanitation master-plan to manage its sewage. Probably this meant that in addition to the Bugoloobi sewerage treatment plant built in 1940s and another one in Masaka, more will be built and the existing ones improved.

The master plan should have a policy that ensures that buildings in the city have toilets and waste management standards are observed. This should be done immediately before WHO wakes up to deny our lovely district the capital city status.

Having realized that it's the rapidly growing urban population and the daily flow of traffic into the city from all neigbouring districts, efforts should be directed towards reducing pressure on the city as well. Being a commercial centre, educational centre, industrial area, political and administrative centre as well as residence to many city dwellers the must plan should be aiming at transferring these services to other districts. For instance people would not travel to Kampala to access banking services if bank branches have been started in their home district.

While businesses are locating their premises in Kampala its surprising that their clients and customers come all the way from the districts outside Kampala. Businesses can now alternatively take their services to the people instead of having them come to Kampala. What the business community needs is the government's involvement in building roads and taking installing electricity in the neigbouring districts.

Most people are now constructing their residential homes outside Kampala in order to enjoy the fresh natural air away from noise pollution and poor drainage. If they also start working in the close vicinity of their abodes the traffic congestion in the city will be history. We need roads and electricity to have the business community invest outside Kampala.

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