Over 500 residents living in flood-hit Kawempe division have threatened to drag government and the National Environment Management Authority [NEMA] to court over mistakes that were made on the Northern bypass which they say have worsened flooding which has led to loss of property.

The agitated group comprising residents of Katoogo, St. Francis, Bugalani, Bwaise and Kalerwe, say they want government to compensate them for the loss of property brought about by frequent flooding that has been made worse following the construction of the Northern bypass highway.

They claim that following the construction of the Northern by-pass, the Nsooba drainage channel which runs through the area, was blocked leading to flood waters to destroy houses, schools and other valuable properties.

Sadam Zakariya Bisase, the chairman of the residents' committee, told a press briefing in Kampala that government and her development partners were supposed to follow environmental guidelines during the construction of the by-pass as well as compensating those whose property were damaged in floods brought on by the existence of the by-pass.

Bisase however adds that promises have been made by several government officials to rectify the situation but so far nothing has been done.

"There was glaring oversight on the side of the technical team in carrying out the works on the road. Government also failed to consider the importance of the project's environmental impact assessment plan with her development partners while at the implementation stage," adds Bisase.
This oversight, he argues, is now affecting the residents' social wellbeing, health, economic interests," said Bisase.

Bisase says that following the construction of the road, flooding has extended to areas places where it never used to reach.
The residents' alarm comes before the onset of the rain season with the hope that the government can respond to the likely multiplication of problems associated with increased floods.

The residents through Abonyina and Company advocates want government to compensate them with Ushs 10b.
"We demand with immediate effect, the government, NEMA and development partners to compensate residents Ushs 10b shillings for damages caused as a result of their negligence's to follow the [E.I.S] project plan," an angry Bisase said.

The angry residents lashed out at NEMA for failing to implement its duties as a national environmental protection body and just watched as lives and their properties in these areas are being destroyed as a result of the breech of the project's environmental impact assessment [E.I.S].

But Bisase advised government to avoid facing angry residents in court by redesigning the bridge that links Mulago to Nsooba which he said results into floods for residents of Mayinja, Ssebina, Kiggundu, Kibe zones of Kalerwe.

But when contacted by The Sunrise to comment on people's intension to drag them to court, NEMA's education and publicity officer Everest Mugambwa Kizito dismissed the residents as mere wetland encroachers.

"NEMA is not ready to compensate wetland encroachers, those people illegally settled in the wetlands and government is not ready to compensate land encroachers. Let them go to court. It's their right we shall challenge them from court," said Kizito.