Just Build Kampala Roads! Lessons from China’s Transport System

Recently, I set out to study the economic analysis of China’s transport system. Many writers I read considered the impact of transportation infrastructure on China’s economy with shared criticisms. One of the major criticisms I found taxed against China’s transport system was that although it comprises a wide network of roads, railways, and airports across its huge territory, the transport network, especially of roads tends to concentrate on the more economically developed coastal areas and inland cities along major rivers. As soon as I read this critique of China’s transport system, I understood that it was actually the explainer for China’s economic triumph. In building roads and railways in major business centers, China leveraged its strength to further expand its economic output. In Uganda, the government’s policy on road construction is focused on ensuring Uganda is connected “border to border” which is not a bad thing had it not been at the expense of constructing greater Kampala roads to leverage our significant economic dividends in the region.

I suspect that the construction of roads in Uganda is more (this is not to say it is the only reason) a political rather than an economic project. I also suspect that the president has much to say in the decision-making process of awarding contracts for major road constructions. The president decides to have a road constructed in an area because the local population there demanded for one… because their children “want to see tarmac also!” As such, we have roads built in areas where the net return on investment is simply political capital for the president/ the ruling government at the expense of Uganda’s economic development.

I suggest that road construction should be looked at foremost as an economic enterprise with measurable returns on investment. For every road constructed, we must be able to measure the efficiency and profitability it will produce in return. Uganda can calculate its return on investment from its road construction by assessing the economic benefits generated from road investments compared to the costs. For instance, we must be able to calculate the initial construction costs including materials, labor, and land acquisition; maintenance and operational costs over time; and environmental and social costs e.g., displacement of people and wildlife, and pollution. We also must be able to calculate the benefits estimated from the investment. For instance, increased business activities due to better transport; lower vehicle maintenance and fuel costs; shorter travel times for goods and people; reduction in road accidents and fatalities; more efficient movement of goods and services and increased land and property values near improved roads. To know the net benefit from the road constructed, we would have to subtract the total cost of construction from the total benefits estimated from the investment. Does Uganda bother with these calculations while undertaking road construction projects? I think not.

Without assessing whether our road investments are yielding positive economic and social returns, the huge amounts of money sunk into road construction are simply buried, not planted investments.

China’s transportation infrastructure investments are carefully calculated to ensure they contribute significantly to China’s GDP. For every highway built, China targets to improve logistics and reduce costs. For every railway built, China has done a study and established the need to enhance efficiency and increase overall productivity from a certain economic zone. For instance, China’s high-speed rail system is intentionally built to connect economic hubs with realisable productivity to facilitate business expansion by reducing travel time and increasing market accessibility. If we had these calculations in Uganda, the districts of Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono would take at least 50 percent of the road construction budget of Uganda.

Why?

Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono districts produce 65% of Uganda’s total Gross Domestic Product and 75% of the country’s total tax revenue collection. The bewildering irony is that despite such an enormous contribution to our nation’s economic output, these enterprising districts receive less than 2 percent of the budget allocated to road construction and maintenance for the rest of the country. This is a policy miscalculation I can never comprehend!

There is not an ounce of understanding of economic prioritization in how Uganda makes investment decisions on road construction. China concentrates its road construction in economically developed coastal areas and inland cities along major rivers such as the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, and Bohai Economic Rim because they are the country’s economic powerhouses. These are areas that contribute significantly to China’s GDP through manufacturing, trade, and services. It is obvious that developing transport infrastructure in these regions maximizes economic returns even if many other parts of the country may lack comprehensive transport infrastructure. Why don’t we make this prioritization too? Why is it too hard to see?

China’s coastal cities also host major ports like Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, which handle a significant portion of China’s international trade. These regions also have high population densities. So, it makes sense to ensure efficient road networks in these areas to smoothen the transportation of goods and people between ports and industrial hubs. Following the same logic, Uganda should have a detailed road and railway network to ensure efficient transportation of goods from Malaba, through Jinja, Mukono to Kampala. Why do we have one, narrow, dilapidated road carrying the entire volume of goods into the country from Malaba?

It cannot be that the country’s understandable budget constraints are the cause of Uganda’s poor transport system in urban areas. Not even China has enough money to build every road in their country. It all comes down to prioritization of investment and strictly investing in roads with realisable economic output. Uganda’s road network spans 160,000 km. 21,000 km of that are national trunk roads, 38,600 km are district roads, 20,000 km are urban roads (covering cities, municipalities, and towns), and 80,000 km are community access roads. The country’s revenues simply can’t sustain constructing all these roads. But basic economic considerations would long have made it clear to us that we must concentrate on the 20,000 km of urban roads to create efficiency in these economic hubs which would in return generate the revenues to expand road construction to other areas across the country.

The mathematics seems simple. The return on investment looks great. Why can’t our government make policy shifts and do what is necessary?

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Development Watch Center.

Smart Urban Planning: Benchmarking China to Solve Kampala’s Traffic Crisis

It is estimated that 64% of Uganda’s GDP and 75% of total national revenue collection comes from the Kampala Metropolitan area. To maintain and increase this level of productivity, Kampala needs to have a smooth flow of traffic on good roads. As factors currently stand, millions of the country’s most productive population segment lose productive hours of work seated in deadlock traffic in Kampala’s congested, pot-holed, narrow roads.  On average, about 5-6 hours are wasted daily on the road by workers who are bogged down in the morning and evening when they are going to or coming from work. This is even besides counting the physical and mental health costs urban traffic congestion has on people daily.

Some analyses have concluded that Kampala’s problem is not about a lack of financial resources to build the roads, but one of bureaucratic procurement procedures. It is established that in 2016, Uganda received $300 million from African Development Bank to repair and/or reconstruct some of the major roads in Kampala. This was followed by the award of tenders and contracts by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) in 2020. Those who lost in the awarding process petitioned the PPDA and other agencies to bog down the commencement of works because of the agents involved in the bidding chain who are always calculating for cuts off of the awards. Almost five years later, no serious works have commenced. The little patchwork done to fill a few potholes and clean drainages has been done by the Special Forces Command (SFC) under the direct intervention of Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba. The deleterious effect of these delays is multiplied into not just productivity lost in traffic congestion but also in hefty interests that the government has to keep paying on money it has not even utilised.

My concern is not even about redoing the road network in the entire Kampala Metropolitan Area which definitely must be done at some time if Kampala is to be rescued from being a large slum. I’m concerned rather with making the city workable as is currently – to cut down the traffic on our roads at an affordable cost.

I believe this is possible because of the following reasons.

Kampala traffic does not normally involve long lines of cars congested along roads. Often, you find that the traffic is intense in an area spanning about eight kilometres. Other parts of the roads are normally freely flowing with few cars.

This implies that congestion happens at intersections or what may be called “choke points.” These are points where we have roundabouts such as Wandegeya, Jinja road traffic lights area, Mulago, Bwaise, Busega, Lubigi and other such places. Other choke points are sections where more than two roads meet.

If there was a smooth flow of traffic at these choke points, cars would never be congested for hours on most of Kampala’s roads, even if they remained in their current state of shambolic narrowness.

With a population of 1.4 billion people, and hundreds of millions of people in individual provincial cities, China is a good country to benchmark with in terms of dealing with deadly traffic. The country innovatively improved its traffic problem and now enjoys high productivity from its citizens.

Let us look at China’s most reasonable and sustainable strategies which enabled it to control traffic congestion having undertaken many ineffective measures from which it improved.

China was notorious for deadly urban traffic congestion in cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shangai and Shenzen.

Like Kampala, China’s cities faced congestion especially at intersections of wider roads, causing excessively long waiting hours at red lights, and general traffic disorder at intersections. This was a major cause of inconvenience.

This, I think, is Kampala’s major traffic problem today, and China offers lessons on overcoming it affordably.

China introduced policies to improve the service level of intersections. This involved building flyovers and pedestrian overpasses, and enhancing the efficiency of road networks and places with high volumes of cars. The goal was to increase the space supply of motor vehicles and expand the capacity of road traffic at choke points to avoid standstill congestion.

Given the fact that Kampala is a small city, with few major roundabouts and intersections, it is possible to invest our meagre resources to concentrate on dissolving traffic at such critical intersections such as Wandegeya traffic lights, Mulago, Busega, Jinja road and other such areas. This would include building pedestrian over-walks like the one at the former clock tower. These would consume pedestrian traffic smoothly and safely, leaving roads for motorists.

The boda boda cyclists would also have to be given special lanes at the points of intersection or be redirected to other roads that bypass the choke point areas. With that, cars would never have to stop at traffic lights and cause hours of congestion on a daily.

Following years of research, China established that the “sparse block collocation” policy is the most sustainable and fundamental congestion control measure. This policy involved the design of walkable streets and pedestrian scale blocks to enhance pedestrian traffic; incorporating pedestrian safety and convenience requirements into architectural design; reducing the demand for motor vehicles by creating bicycle-friendly road networks; increasing the use of public transport by building public transport-oriented streets and communities; advocating mixed land-use patterns to disperse public travel destinations; and establishing public green spaces and services within walking distance of each other. The benefits of instituting this policy were several, including achieving more balanced employment and housing for citizens, shortening commuting distances, and reducing traffic demand in cities. This could be a good policy to benchmark on in future when Uganda has the resources to redesign the greater Kampala area completely, which we must do at some point!

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Development Watch Center.

Kampala Pothole Exhibition points at the need to adopt Chinese development Strategy

In case you’ve not been paying attention, last week ushered into the Ugandan civic space a new era of online and remote protests. The satirically dubbed #KampalaPotholeExhibition; a brainchild of Ugandan cartoonist and Academic Dr Spire Ssentongo, had all the pomp and novelty of a cultural revolution with Ugandan social media enthusiasts tweeting, posting and sharing various pictures and posts about Kampala’s “endemic pothole problem”. These posts, bordering on the hilarious, concerning and shocking made the online protest viral with features even in some traditional media outlets and many of our mobile phones and computer screens were the frontlines of the protest awash with images of all natures of potholes.

Unlike the physical protests which have for long characterized the Ugandan civil agitation space with debatable results, this particular protest seems to have achieved early level success with the momentum it garnered culminating into a discussion in parliament and the President ordering the release of funds for the expeditious repair of potholes in the city.

One of the most pertinent things that stood out in the discourse is that very little foreign aid is funneled into the transport infrastructure development in Uganda. For the most part Uganda funds its own expansion, repair and upgrading of roads especially within the Kampala metropolitan area, a heavy yoke on the Ugandan taxpayer which bites even harder if you have to carry it on pothole riddled roads. Additionally, this also stunts the road construction sector because with lack of international sector benchmarks and quality controls, many roads are constructed in inefficient and unsustainable outdated ways by local engineers and the foreign engineering firms who aim to undercut their expenditure and remit higher profit margins.

This is why the Chinese development aid structure stands out as perhaps the only major infrastructure driven foreign assistance policy that focuses on building Uganda’s infrastructure portfolio to spur cross-sector development in the national economy. In the past two decades, Uganda has seen a significant increase in Chinese investment and associated diplomatic policy, with major projects including the construction of the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway, the Karuma Hydroelectric Power Station, and the Standard Gauge Railway and many other major infrastructure projects. These projects have been funded by Chinese loans and grants, and some have been actualized through Public-Private partnerships with Chinese companies which share their cutting age technology on the sites and provide the much needed employment for Ugandan workers through the local content parameters. Chinese engineers and other experts work closely with their Ugandan counterparts, sharing knowledge and expertise to help improve the quality of infrastructure projects in the country.

 

The diplomatic corp of the People’s Republic of China has also played a key role in the development of Uganda’s infrastructure sector with China being a major supporter of Uganda’s development agenda, and working closely with the Ugandan government to identify areas where Chinese aid and expertise can be most effective. This has included the development of a comprehensive infrastructure master plan, which outlines the key areas where investment is needed to support Uganda’s economic growth as well as linking the various economic hubs of the country with road and rail networks to kickstart this development.

An outstanding example of this would be the “Oil roads” in Western Uganda currently being constructed in the Albertine basin to facilitate the oil exploration activities that are already giving districts like Hoima facelifts and encouraging economic and social development within the region. This investment has helped to improve the quality of life for Ugandans, by providing better access to markets, healthcare, education and other multiplier effects.

Looking ahead, Uganda is well positioned to benefit from the Belt and Road project being rolled out across the African continent. This initiative, which aims to promote economic development and connectivity across Asia, Europe, and Africa, has the potential to transform Uganda’s infrastructure sector, by providing new opportunities for investment and collaboration with Chinese companies.

Chinese investment and diplomatic policy have played a critical role in the development of Uganda’s infrastructure sector, particularly in the construction of roads and other transportation infrastructure and if we are to follow its de-congestion strategy particularly by constructing more superhighways like the Entebbe Expressway and investing in alternative means of transport like the Chinese funded East African Standard Gauge Railway, the overall driving experience and road condition within Kampala will be greatly enhanced. While there is still much work to be done to address the challenges highlighted by the so-called #KampalaPotholeExhibition, the progress that has been made to date is a testament to the power of international cooperation and partnership in driving economic development and improving the lives of people around the world.

The Kampala Pothole exhibition has gone a long way to reveal the dire state of the road network within our capital and there’s a collective sigh of relief from the Citizens that expeditious action is being taken to rectify this. It is also a pat on the back for the Sino-Ugandan mutual development strategy that focuses on infrastructure development to spur economic development in the country.

 

Shemei Ndawula is a senior Research Fellow at the Development Watch Centre.