By Sadique Bamwita
ENTEBBE
The leadership of Entebbe Municipal council and management of Uganda Civil Aviation Authority met on November 14 ,2024 and discussed land use and wildlife hazard management around Entebbe International airport in order to find long lasting solutions to enhance safety at Entebbe International Airport.
The Entebbe Municipal Town Clerk, Emmanuel Gacharo Mugisha argues that because of the unique nature of Entebbe International Airport, council deems it necessary to co-opt management of Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) on its building and physical planning committee such that as stakeholders they plan together.
Town Clerk Mugisha said that as Entebbe Municipal council, they are willing to work together with UCAA in areas of land use and wildlife hazard management and called for continuous engagements and collaboration with all stakeholders for the safety and betterment of Entebbe International Airport.
“If you read the Building and physical planning Act the whole country is a planning area and it’s the responsibility of local council authorities to plan for their respective areas. We all use Airport facilities hence we need to be concerned with safety of airport users. We have co-opted the Special Forces command unit (SFC) and they are now part of our building and physical planning committee. The SFC came on board to ensure that the structures around Entebbe state house don’t pose a security threat. In the same way we want UCAA to join us such that they are part of this planning committee to ensure the approvals we make don’t endanger the airport and our lives because we all use these facilities, ‘ Town Clerk Mugisha suggested.
On the issue of waste management, Mr. Mugisha noted that it has become a touchy issue in recent years and called for massive sensitization of locals on waste management.
“Sensitization of locals should begin at household level. We are planning to set up a recycling plant to process garbage such that we eradicate the challenge of accumulated garbage that attract birds which are key hazard to the airport,” Mr. Mugisha stated.
The Entebbe mayor Fabrice Rulinda expressed displeasure with management of Uganda Civil Aviation authority for putting down his billboards on suspicion that they could have been among the obstructions when Rwanda Airways had issues a few years ago at Entebbe International Airport. He however called for continuous engagements such that everything does not come out as a surprise.
“We are ready to work and partner with you to ensure the community and the airport co-exist. We need to plan for expansion of roads near the airport as a team. Recently, Uganda Airlines reached out to us to train fishers on the issue of disposal of fish waste so that we avoid birds that pose a threat to aircrafts at Entebbe International Airport, ‘Mayor Rulinda noted.
The manager in charge of planning at Entebbe International Airport, Eng. Ronald Twesigye commended Entebbe municipal council for the Memorandum of understanding it signed with management of the airport which provides it for approval of plans for physical structures especially tall buildings.
“As a result of signing MOU with you, we always get developers who come to us to see if their approvals don’t affect us and likewise we do the same. I thank the town clerk for the proposal to co-opt the authority on the building and physical planning committee and this would save time,’ Eng. Twesigye expressed optimism.
Eng. Twesigye explained that in order to expand Entebbe International airport, they need to secure Kigungu land saying the biggest obstacle to achieving this is lack of resources to compensate locals living in the area.
“ We need to make sure we secure Kigungu land very soon because if we wait for tomorrow people would have done a lot of developments on it and the cost of compensation today would be different from the one for tomorrow.
‘Our future looks at having Kigungu land as part of airport land. We want to extend runway 23/30 into the lake but this can be possible if we secured Kigungu land. So securing Kigungu land is top on our agenda, we look forward to engaging municipal council and the people in identifying their relocation areas and also working together with council because when you look at the compensation required, we need government to support this move. I strongly believe that together with Entebbe Municipal council- we can make this happen.
“Our master plan was inaugurated in 2014 but recently it was revised in 2024 and therefore we need a lot of engagements to actualize it. I will share these documents with the relevant stakeholders and we need to push it further. We however want council to remove the palm trees that were planted along Airport road in abid to beautify roads. They have become a big obstacle to our runways and they need to be removed before they grow,’ Eng. Twesigye expressed concern.
On the other hand, the in charge wildlife hazard management at Entebbe International Airport , Gloria Kirabo, noted that collision between animals and birds often take place at the airport as aircrafts take off or land. She added that in 1951 Entebbe was gazetted a wildlife sanctuary and that most of the birds at the airport come from Mabamba Island and Lutembe beach and when they get in touch with the aircraft they can cause accident.
“To minimize the risk of bird hazards at the airport, we decided to use four approaches including community engagement, habitat management, dispersal and continuous research and environmental management. We chase away birds by using cars that mimic danger and we also use foot patrolling to scare them away on land, ‘Mrs. Kirabo revealed.
The safety manager at Entebbe International Airport, Mr. Paul Kalemba, noted that tall structures around the airport are a critical hazard which affects both departures and arrivals at the airport. He, however appealed to developers to coordinate with management of the airport to be able to manage safety risks generated through approvals of tall structures.
