The impact of war disaster on urban activities:The impact of war disaster on urban activities:
Abstract
Twice in history, the world has experienced
two large-scale wars which caused great destruction
of urban settlements among other things. Recently,
East Africa witnessed such a war between Uganda and
Tanzania. Although it was on a much smaller and
localized scale, it had devastating impact on some
". urban settlements in Uganda, especially Mbarara and
Masaka.
The Uganda" Government, like those of the
countries devastated in the last World Wars, saw
reconstruction of destroyed towns as a matter of
priority and urgency in the immediate post-war
period. Consequently it called upon all interested
parties to assist in this task. Realizing that this
was an issue of national~importance and challenge,
the author decided to.join the task by taking onto
~fuarara town as a study area.
In addressing itself to this area, the objectives
of the study are: to identify and analyse war impact
on the town; synthesise its post-war growth and
development factors; identify and recommend strategies
and make proposals for reeonstructing its central area;
and to prepare a reconstruction plan and make
recommendations for implementing it.
(viii)
The methods employed to collect data required
for the study were: field survey, observation,
interviews, questinaires, inventory surveys and
review of related literature available.
The analysis found out that war impact on
Mbarara town was comparatively more extensive in
the central area where socio-economic activities
were greatly disrupted.
,' The study holds the view that reconstruction
of the town centre should take the alternative
forms of preservation, restoration, replacement
(redevelopment), and commemorative, future betterment
and developm~nt strategies.
A number of variables, example availability of
construction materials, financial and manpower
resources are envisaged as possible constraints in
the realization of the plan and proposals made. In
this regard, the study concludes by making several
policy reco~endations.