By Hellen Nyamweru:The Kabale slum dwellers federation will soon start the enumeration and mapping exercise in line with the Cities Alliance and World Bank program (TSUPU)- Transforming Settlements of the Urban Poor in Uganda.TSUPU is a partnership undertaken by the Government of Uganda and its support partners to align urban development efforts at the national,local government and community level. According to the many interactions between the Kabale municipality,its local council leaders,focal persons and academia this activity is very much welcome in this town for planning purposes so as to  prevent problems associated with unplanned cities such as urban decay.These exercises will be very useful in collecting relevant information on Kabale city.It will also carve out the available services in the area and thus be very instrumental in identifying what lacks as a service.The information will in this way help open doors  to many forums and provide a platform where the residents of Kabale will demand  essential services lacking in their area.The development of Kabale will in the long run create  regional hubs which  are envisaged to help ease the pressure on Kampala,the capital city of Uganda by supporting it in from many angles.

Kabale city is one of the youngest towns under the TSUPU program located in the southwestern part of Uganda,bordering Rwanda through the Katuna border.It also has another road continuing westwards to Kisoro where one can either  access the Democratic Republic of Congo or the Rwandan town of Ruhengeri.That said,Kabale has the potential to grow into a large border town if it well planned to prepare for the future imminent population.

According to the population census 2002,Kabale had 41,344 people which means that the projected population should be much higher owing to the high fertility rate of 6.5 children per woman in Kabale.Kabale is growing at a very fast pace  but the growth is not planned.It is haphazard meaning that several businesses,structures,hotels keep coming up everyday without a clear plan.Anecdotal data suggests that there is no development plan for Kabale city at the moment and this is very worrying.The population grows every day and planning for this will take the concerted efforts of all residents of Kabale.The informal sector in Kabale is large and has a lot of potential that needs to be tapped.Human capital makes up 85% of any development venture and therefore the commitment of Kabale residents in these activities on mapping and enumerations is a plus.The community demonstrated a lot of the positive energy and are looking forward to the the commencement of these activities.

The Kabale federation is also rife,it is conducting daily mobilization exercises to create awareness of what these activities entail in order to arrest any resistance or snag on the ground.The area's authorities have also been informed  through a number of interactive meetings .The most interesting thing about Kabale is that it is a young town which has embraced the aforementioned activities and seen them as an opportunity given to the inhabitants to crafting their own development.It might not have many slums but has many informal settlements mushrooming at an alarming rate.This is what needs to be addressed.Planning resources and strategies are needed to address problems of slum development.Lessons from Kabale can also be replicated to other young towns of Uganda and steer them towards urbanization,a reality we cannot escape from.The time to do this is now!!