Ebunyo Wilson Ogaro who works in the Department of Surveys and Mapping, Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development from the Republic of Uganda shared the upcoming projects, how Uganda has embraced digitalization and what their views on India, in an exclusive interview with Geospatial World.
What are the upcoming projects of the Ugandan Ministry?
The Department of Surveys and Mapping is responsible for the provision of land and mapping services in the Republic of Uganda. The Republic of Uganda is undertaking many infrastructural developments like construction of roads, transmission electric lines, express highways, and the construction of the oil pipeline from Uganda through Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. All these infrastructural developments need location, and to respond to this we have embarked on the development of the Geodetic Network in Uganda.
The Geodetic Network in Uganda is also manned with permanent pillars but at the same time we have Continuously Operating References Stations (CORS), which helps both the government surveyors, the geospatial community, both in the government of Uganda and also in the private sector involved in the development of the Geodetic Network.
To respond to these challenges within the country, we have managed to make sure that we have ortho-imagery that we collected using aircraft to get aerial photographs, which help us to locate exactly where each feature is on the ground. And this aerial photograph, digital orthorectified imagery is now being used to check the quality of our national learning information system.
We have also established Uganda National Land Information System, a one-stop center whereby we are able to give registered documents, that is documentary evidence, the titles in the Republic of Uganda, to our people.
We have also embarked on making sure that we have Geode, which means we have heights network covering the whole country. We have actually captured the data covering the whole country and are in the process of making sure that we are able to have a height network involved in property registration, making sure that land tenure systems in Uganda are given to the beneficiaries.
In 1995, when our country embarked on a new constitution, they made a provision that all land belongs to the people but it came with a problem whereby people started grabbing land. People belonging to vulnerable groups like women, children, and widows were evicted from the land. So government wanted to make sure that people should have documentary evidence for the land they own, that program is called Systematic Land Adjudication and Demarcation.
We’re also working hand in hand with our neighbors, Kenya, Southern Sudan, DRC, Rwanda and Tanzania to make sure that we survey our international boundaries. We also have other internal administrative problems, boundaries between the different administrative districts.
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Is Geospatial location data used for any urban planning initiatives in Uganda? For small town planning, for making cities more lively, for solving urban challenges like congestion, clustering and emissions?
We are already using Geode information to solve these issues in urban areas. For example, the ortho-rectified imagery which we captured is being used for planning purposes, to plan cities. We have orthoimagery for more than 10 cities in Uganda, with the digital imagery at 15 centimeter resolution, with the help of which we were able to plan these areas.
What are the key priorities for the Ministry in the coming year?
First is to enhance the Geodetic Network which we started, making sure that we densify our geodetic network. We are also making sure that we now update our maps, which were obsolete, right now as we talk, in Uganda.
Is there a Collaborative Mechanism for best insights with the regional and global private players like startups, with established companies, with non-profits for data sharing for a common knowledge platform?
Yes, we have, one is that the private sector is liberalized in Uganda where they have gone further to establish the Geodetic Network in the country and are operating freely. So there is collaboration between government and the private sector.
Could you cite any key success story of the land tenure? Any transformative story that has made an impact?
The land tenure program has been very good in such a way that it has been able to lessen the number of land disputes in the country. Besides, there were some areas where poor people could not get money from the bank because of a lack of collateral. But with documentary evidence now, they’re able to go to the banks and get the money they need.
Empowering People at the Grass root level is happening, is it being done so that they can get connected and they can get financial help also?
We are empowering the grass root people by making sure that,
1. They have documentary evidence of their land.
2. And with the documentary evidence, they’re able to improve their position by making sure that the disputes are lessened. Even when they go to courts of law the time taken has lessened.
3. They’re able to go to get resources which they can use for empowering themselves, especially the vulnerable groups like widows, children.
Just like a lot of other emerging countries, Uganda is embarking on digitalization, using a gamut of technologies like drones. How far has this progress been made? Is there anything like a digital Uganda roadmap?
Digitalization is the way to go. My government realized that in 2012 and decided to change all the manual records like maps and titles and a lot of other information which were being done manually. We took the old maps we had, we rehabilitated, scanned then geo referenced the maps and digitalized them along with the land titles in that order. And all that has been stored in the Uganda National Land Information System.
We have now a digital land information system and one of the priorities is to make sure that we clean the Uganda National Information System because when we were operating the manual system, there were some errors and mistakes. We are making sure that as we keep on mapping, use drones.
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A lot of organizations and countries these days are looking to embrace digital twins. Is there any vision for a Ugandan digital twin or any process under way towards it? What are your views on India?
My government actually identified digitalization as one of the ways to go, making sure that we have all information in digital format. However, we have not gone very far on that.
We want to learn from India how they have managed to demystify technology, the issues of location. Indians are able to capture data and using that data to solve problems for the common people. I learnt that India has got satellites and with the use of drone technology to make sure they have updated our maps.
