Uganda’s Jinja Municipal Council has donated 7 acres of land to the Slum Dwellers’ Association for construction of houses that will provide an alternative place to live.
A typical Ugandan slum
This comes as good news to a country where about 60 percent of the population of Uganda’s capital City of Kampala, live in informal settlements closely similar to slums.
The Director of Housing in the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, William Walaga hopes the association will construct more descent houses for slum dwellers on the land.
Walaga says, the ministry is closely working with the association to adequately solve the housing challenge among Uganda’s poor.
He says the ministry is also closely working directly with the slum dwellers through the programme of slum upgrading aimed at transforming slum areas into areas with decent housing.
Walaga pointed out Namuwongo in Kampala district as one of the areas which has benefited from the initiative.