By KT Reporter
Authorities in the Masaka City Council have embarked on restoring the Mayor’s Gardens as part of the initiatives to promote environmental conservation in the area.
The plan comes almost a decade after the leadership of the former Masaka Municipal Council sold off the original gardens to a private developer, who has since replaced them with a business plaza.
Florence Namayanja, the Masaka City Mayor, observes that the idea was considered by her executive committee, as part of the city’s beautification master plan, in which they intend to leave a lasting legacy of their tenure.
The new Mayor’s gardens have been allocated 2.6 acres of land located along Alex-Ssebowa road in Katwe ward, opposite Masaka Liberation Square in Nyendo-Mukungwe division. They are substituting the former Mayor’s Gardens that were along Elgin Street in the city centre.
Namayanja says they planned to beautify the gardens with flowers and different tree species, and resolved to maintain it as a demonstration area for mobilising the public to embrace environmental protection practices.
According to her, in addition to flowers and trees, the gardens will also be used to host physical fitness drills and exhibit artefacts made out of recycled plastic waste that is littered in the environment.
According to the City’s approved budget for the financial year 2025/2026, the project will be implemented under the Climate Change and Greening program, which was allocated 100 million shillings, which will be jointly raised by the City Council and development partners that deal in environmental conservation activities.
Tom Luyobya, the Secretary for Finance and Technical Planning Committee, is hopeful that the gardens will partly revive the broader beauty that had been previously lost in the City, with the allocation of greenbelts for buildings.
He observes that in the past, the urban council lost several of its precious green spaces, which greatly compromised its natural beauty, saying that the current leadership is trying to correct the mess.
Joseph Musisi Ssebatta, a member of the City Development Forum, says that the project is long overdue, indicating that the public has always been yearning for the establishment of such natural leisure parks in the area.
He, however, prefers that in addition to flowers, the City Council also consider including in the garden the key cash and food crops of coffee and bananas, to symbolise the traditional heritage of the greater Masaka sub-region-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
