UGANDA, Fort Portal | Real Muloodi News | The Fort Portal City Authority’s attempts to rally residents to embrace the city’s physical planning policy has been beset with challenges.
The physical planning policy is intended to direct growth and transform the tourism city into a well-organised urban center. However, developers in Fort Portal city have been slow to adopt the policy.
According to the policy, property owners in the central business district are expected to pave their walkways and undertake face lifting of their premises to maintain a clean and organised city.
Whereas plots less than 50 by 100 feet will not be approved for development, as stipulated in the Physical Planning Act.
However, according to the city town clerk Theopilus Tibihika, a number of developers are constructing structures in the city with total disregard of the physical planning policy.
While there are guidelines in place that are in-line with Physical Planning Act, Fort Portal City still does not have a fully-fledged physical plan. This has led to the rise of illegal structures in the city. Many developers are erecting unapproved structures in the city, and some are now degrading wetlands.
Samuel Musana, the senior physical planner of Fort Portal City, says they are facing a colossal challenge due to the absence of a blueprint (physical plan), which is supposed to guide them while developing the city.
He adds that some developers have taken advantage of this loophole and have erected buildings in wetlands and other environmentally sensitive areas.
“Fort Portal became a city and like any other place with a growing population, we expect people to build structures without approved plans. As authorities, we have to be up to the task not to allow illegalities to thrive because we have a law that is supposed to guide development and that’s the Physical Planning Act,” Musana says.
Musana says they will ensure that the developers adhere to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning regarding the construction of permanent structures.
He says that to deal with the problem of illegal structures, they have dispatched a team of agents to register all new developments and ascertain whether they have approved plans or not so that the council can make an outright decision.
However Musana expressed his disappointed that some councillors and technical people in the city are engaging in the illegal acts of building without an approved plan, yet they are the ones supposed to guide the rest of the population.
Nasuru Mwesigwa, the roads engineer in Fort Portal City, says that developers are supposed to consult with relevant city authorities before they embark on any development projects.
He adds that they await the city’s physical plan, which is about to be completed so that the opening of roads and working on the proper drainage management system can start.
Martin Muzinguzi, a resident from North Division opines that the city authorities should allow developers to proceed with construction without approved plans yet saying the fees being charged are exorbitant and they cannot be raised all at a go.
Fort Portal, seated at the foot of the Rwenzori Mountains, was granted a municipality status in 1976 and city status in 2020. With a population of 54,275, it is one of the densely populated cities in the country.
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