Uganda Town Mandates Rainwater Tanks to Stop Flooding

A town in Uganda is transforming its flooding crisis into an opportunity for smarter water use, one rooftop at a time.

Kasese Municipality has given all property owners until August 2026 to install rainwater harvesting systems on their homes. The mandate aims to stop the destructive cycle of floods and erosion that has plagued the rapidly growing town for years.

Every rainy season, water rushing off rooftops carves deep gullies into roads, threatens homes, and overwhelms drainage systems. The damage has cost the local government heavily in repairs, with crews constantly fixing destroyed roads and bridges.

Evelyn Mugume, the town's Senior Environment Officer, says the problem got worse as Kasese expanded. More buildings without proper water collection meant more runoff flooding into streets during storms.

The solution draws on a 2019 national building code that already requires rainwater harvesting systems for all homes. Kasese is now enforcing what was already law, asking residents to capture rain from their roofs either in storage tanks or through systems that let water soak back into the ground.

The Ripple Effect

The benefits extend far beyond flood prevention. Families who install tanks will have free water for gardens, cleaning, and household use during dry periods.

The town expects the systems to take pressure off overwhelmed drainage channels while cutting the money spent on emergency repairs. That freed-up budget could go toward other community needs instead of fixing the same washed-out roads year after year.

Municipal authorities are treating this as both an environmental protection measure and a climate resilience strategy. Low-lying neighborhoods that flood repeatedly will see the biggest relief as thousands of rooftops stop sending water directly into the streets.

The directive also promotes what officials call sustainable water management at the household level. Instead of treating rainfall as a problem to drain away, residents can view it as a resource to capture and use.

Compliance officers are working with homeowners to meet the August 2026 deadline. The town is positioning the requirement not as a burden but as an investment in protecting both private property and shared infrastructure.

For a municipality tired of watching the same destructive pattern repeat each rainy season, the solution was hiding in plain sight above every building.