NMS MULTI-BILLION FACILITY FLOODED: QUESTIONS RAISED OVER ENVIRONMENTAL APPROVALS AND SITE CHOICE
By Admin | November 3, 2025 | Econews Digital
Uganda’s new National Medical Stores (NMS) pharmaceutical and office complex in Kajjansi, Wakiso District, has come under intense scrutiny after being submerged in water following recent heavy rains. The Shs 70 billion state-of-the-art facility, built to centralize the country’s medicine storage and distribution systems, is now facing questions of environmental negligence and poor planning.
The massive infrastructure, which sits on 10 acres of land with an additional 13 acres reserved for future expansion, was officially commissioned by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on November 3, 2022. Designed to modernize Uganda’s health supply chain, the warehouse was hailed as one of East Africa’s largest medical storage facilities, equipped with high-capacity cold rooms and automation systems. Yet, its location in an area historically known for clay extraction and yam plantations—a region once classified as a wetland—has proven problematic. After a recent downpour, the ground turned muddy and waterlogged, surrounding parts of the structure and sparking widespread concern as the rainy season intensifies.
The flooding has renewed debate about whether an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was properly conducted before the construction began. Environmentalists and nearby residents have questioned how such a large project was approved without adequate safeguards. Some have also pointed to the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) for apparent lapses in oversight, noting that construction permits were issued despite the site’s ecological vulnerability.
During the facility’s commissioning in 2022, President Museveni himself expressed reservations about the site, bluntly stating:
“I congratulate you, but you built in a bad place. You built in a wetland. When I asked Kamabare [the NMS General Manager], because he was born in the rocks, he does not know how wetlands look like. He gave me a long story that this was a quarry of clay by Kajjansi tile makers.”
The President further added:
“Yes, if it was a quarry for clay, that proves it was a swamp—something beyond question. But you don’t have to worry. We have told people who have built structures like this and factories that we give them ten years to migrate out of the wetlands at their own cost. However, I don’t know how economical it is, considering the amount of money you used to fill up this place, because this place is definitely a swamp.”
Now, two years later, the President’s warning appears prescient. The facility stands surrounded by floodwater — an irony for a project celebrated as a milestone in Uganda’s medical logistics transformation. Satellite imagery and on-site reports show that runoff from higher grounds flows directly toward the compound, amplifying the problem in an already waterlogged zone.
Environmental analysts argue that the NMS case reflects a recurring national dilemma: the tension between infrastructural expansion and sustainable land-use management. Uganda’s wetlands have been shrinking rapidly — from 15.5% of total land cover in 1994 to less than 8% by 2022 — due to encroachment by factories, farms, and residential projects. Experts warn that ignoring hydrological realities in the name of progress may lead to costly reversals like this one.
While NMS officials maintain that the facility was constructed above the flood line with proper drainage systems, sustainability advocates insist that building resilience begins with proper site selection. Relocating or mitigating flood impacts may now cost the government millions more in restoration and maintenance — funds that could have been spared through stronger environmental compliance.
Once envisioned as a symbol of national progress, the Kajjansi NMS facility has now become a case study in environmental oversight and the consequences of building against nature’s design. As the rainy season deepens, Uganda’s health logistics hub remains vulnerable — a stark reminder that sustainable planning is not optional, but essential.
