Engineers Registration Board: New cities are just sets of new urban slums

The Engineers' Registration Board has said that that the newly approved cities are only a new set of urban slums and that these lack compatible city standards.

In a cabinet meeting held on Monday 20th May, at the State House in Entebbe, Cabinet approved the creation of nine cities in three phases from July 2020, July 2021 and July 2022.

The cities that were approved include Jinja, Hoima, Mbarara, Arua, Gulu, Fort Portal, Mbale, Lira and Entebbe.

The chairperson of the Engineer's Registration Board Michael Odong while at the 24th annual technology conference said that the approved cities lack modern urban planning which should enable them to acquire basic city standards.

He said that cities need rigorous planning and designed master plans and that they should consult them as engineers while doing this.

"Now they have come up with new cities but who has seen their master plans? Cities need planning but did they consult us?" He asked.

He called upon engineers to come out and get involved in planning for this country before things go wrong.

He said that government should not make a mistake of appointing a non engineering executive director to take over Kampala Capital City Authority management adding that managing cities requires technicality that only engineers poses.

At the same conference, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Works and Transport Waiswa Bageya said that the ministry of Works and Transport is only concerned with the regulation of the transport and construction of infrastructure and not consulting engineers.