Nansana Municipal Council in collaboration with ICLEI Africa-Local Governments for Sustainability, has hosted the first ever local Town Hall Conference of Parties (COP) in Uganda, to gather climate related challenges and opportunities of local context.
The continental Town Hall COPs were launched in April 2025 by ICLEI Africa, with the first conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, early this month.
Mr Ben Odongo, the head of ICLEI Africa Clean Cooking Centre, observed a gap between national priorities and local actions, explaining that within climate related policies, there’s a lot of guidance from the government in terms of what policies meant to be put in place but the implementation falls at the level of municipal councils and lower local governments.
“Bridging that gap is important to ensure that together we are able to fight climate change. Climate policies remain unimplemented,” he said yesterday.
Nansana Municipality is grappling poor waste management, with some locals dumping garbage under trenches, causing floods especially in areas along major drainage channels and swamps.
The study conducted by the authorities indicated that at least 14.8 percent of Nansana Municipality is prone to floods.
Flood hotspots can be found in Kattabaana, Bulesa, Nasirye, Butera, Nawata, Kabonge-Buyaga, Bukemba-Kabanyolo among others in Busukuma Division.
Other areas are Kawempe B, Tula, Kisimu, Katooke, Nabweru Division Headquarters, Wamala and Kakira in Nabweru Division. In Nansana Division, locals of Katoogo, Lubigi, Bwaise, Kibwa, Kazo, Lugoba-Kazinga, Bujjagaali and Kabumbi are experiencing floods.
Similarly, in Watindo Wambale, Gombe, along Semuto road, Ngalomyambe, and Kavule in Gombe Division flood during heavy rains.
Unfortunately, in the rural divisions of Gombe and Busukuma, they don’t have private companies that collect rubbish. It’s upon individuals to manage their own wastes.
Mr Odongo said resolutions from the conferences will be shared with national governments and later fed into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process.
He however acknowledged efforts by the council for initiatives currently undertaken to tackle climate challenges including tree planting campaigns spearheaded by the youth.
With Bloomberg Funding, 66,000 trees have been planted to restore the environment.
Ms Regina Bakitte, Nansana Municipality Mayor, believes the vision of the municipality of becoming a transformed city, prosperous and well planned society by 2040 is still alive.
Through lobbying, she was able to secure funding last year and a mobile application was developed to help monitor climate action in the area. “With just a click of a button, our technicians can be able to track climate related activities in the community.”
Another team of patriotic youth initiated a program to install clean cook stoves in schools. These are intended to reduce on the use of charcoal, a primary cause of forests depletion in Uganda.
“It is our appeal that what is working can be scaled and the funding can be availed to make sure that such innovations can reach the broader municipality, and be a bench marker for other municipalities to learn.”
Climate Action activities in Nansana are aligned with the Nationally Determined Contributions for Uganda as a country. Uganda has targets on environmental restoration, tree planting, climate literacy and education among others.
Ms Stellah Nalumansi, Nansana Municipal Senior Environment Officer, reported that 64.5 percent of the municipality is exposed to low drought hazards, with at least 26.8 percent exposed to moderate in areas of Maganjo, Migadde, Gombe, Mwererwe, and Wambale among others.
ICLEI is the focal point of local governments and municipal authority’s constituency, giving the organisation an opportunity to mobilize the local governments and municipal authorities and be able to gather their challenges and opportunities to address climate change.