By Alfred Opio
The LC5 Chairperson of Pallisa District, Patrick Duchu, has called on the government to urgently review the current settlement pattern in the district, citing mounting land pressure caused by rapid population growth and scattered homesteads.
Duchu noted that land once owned by forefathers in large portions has significantly shrunk due to unplanned and dispersed settlement.
“Land that our grandfathers owned, about eight acres a long time ago, has now turned entirely into settlement land because people have built everywhere,” Duchu said. “Perhaps government should revise our settlement pattern. It must not be this one which is very wasteful.”
He proposed that communities be encouraged — or compelled — to settle in organized clusters along main roads to prevent wastage of land and resources. According to him, planned settlements would also ease service delivery and reduce infrastructure costs.
“I would expect we are compelled to settle along the main roads. There must be a clear plan for settlement. When people settle everywhere, we waste a lot of land and a lot of resources,” he emphasized.
Duchu explained that concentrated settlements would make it easier to extend essential services such as electricity and piped water.
“Instead of power lines looking for everyone everywhere, we would have one line of power going through and one line of piped water, and everyone would be covered with these amenities,” he added.
However, he expressed concern that national policymakers are not giving enough attention to the growing land crisis in rural districts.
“Unfortunately, our policymakers up there seem to be sleeping. By the time we wake up, things will be in a geopanic,” he warned.
Meanwhile, the Resident District Commissioner of Pallisa District, Majid Dhikusooka, welcomed the idea of organized settlement but cautioned that roadside settlement alone may not fully solve the district’s population pressure.
Dhikusooka observed that the district’s population is already too large for roadside concentration to adequately accommodate all families.
Instead, he advised households to embrace family planning methods to control population growth, noting that rapid population increase has contributed significantly to land fragmentation and the current scarcity.
The debate comes at a time when many parts of Pallisa are experiencing shrinking land sizes, increased subdivision of ancestral land, and rising demand for social services, raising fresh concerns about sustainable land use in the district.
