from the press

IN a situation where globalisation is making the world a small place to live in, the rapid increase in population, especially in sub-Saharan countries is an issue of great concern and controversy. Over the years, the population in sub-Saharan Africa has been growing, and Uganda, with the third highest population growth rate of 3.5% per annum in the world, has not been left behind.
The booming population is only one among many causes of social and environmental problems. Ethiopia, for instance experienced a population growth from 42 million at the time of the unforgettable famine in 1984 to 75 million today. By 2050 its population is projected to reach 145 million. This condition surfaces at a time when eight million Ethiopians live on permanent food aid.
Being as it is, the proportional size of the world has never increased in the wake of the high population growth rate. In fact, the world is becoming smaller, with the melting of ice-caps, flooding, which in turn occupy the hitherto land inhabited by man.
The implications of the phenomenon of population growth pose greater risks like human, food, environmental and health insecurities.
In a past conference, at Sheraton Hotel in Kampala, Prof. Dr. John Opuda-Asibo, the chairman of the National Bio-security Committee, was concerned about the rapid population increase, especially in Uganda as a threat to security and a factor in the increase disease out break.
The banality that was ingrained in his concerns was one of the questions that confront many a people in the Uganda today, more than ever.
Previously, The New Vision reported that Uganda's population is estimated to hit 43.4 million in 2017. Presently, the country’s population is estimated to stand at 29 million people. By 2025, the population will almost double to 58 million. Much as the Ugandan economy continues to register impressive growth rates, it is quite obvious that there are more pertinent issues awaiting than meets the eye as this unprecedented population growth poses a unique challenge.
While responding to a question from a participant in North Dakota State University in the United States on the need for Africa, and Uganda in particular to use family planning methods aggressively to check its rising population, Prof. John David Kabaasa, the dean of the faculty of veterinary medicine of Makerere University, though acknowledging that the rapid rise in population would cause food insecurity and natural calamities, argued that there was no need to do so. He categorically stated that Africa has been a vicious victim of diseases which have regulated its population. This is not the only population control measure, as he stated.
“There is going to be a natural and systematic control of the number of children,” he stated. “As people get more educated, they get fewer children.”
Now, Uganda has a higher number of educated people than it was the case say, a few years ago. The population is growing rapidly. Resultantly, insecurities arising from population pressures on the land, increased migration to the urban centres, increased pressures on urban job markets spell enormous burdens are placed on the government for public administration, sanitation, education, police, and other services. Urban slum dwellers may serve as a volatile, violent force which threatens human security.
Poverty levels, which also arise from the strain the high number of children low or no income families aggravates the security condition. They contribute to high and increasing levels of child abandonment, juvenile delinquency, chronic and growing underemployment and unemployment, petty thievery, organized banditry, as has been the case, when armed gangs almost took siege of Kampala city recently.
A past study by (www.population-security.org) indicated that 14 of forty-five conflicts in third world countries examined the ways in which population factors like migration, population pressure and the high population in relation to resource allocation essentially contribute to conflict and violence.
As more and more people are born into, and are compressed in the same living area, aspects like breakdowns in social structures, unemployment, poverty, lowered education opportunities for the masses, few job opportunities for those who do obtain education, pose administrative burdens on governmental systems at all levels.
The young people, who are in much higher proportions in many the least developed countries (LDCs), are likely to be more volatile, unstable, alienation and violence than an older population. A case in point is South Africa. Despite being one of the favourite spots for tourists and foreign investment, and low population growth rate at 0.5%, it has had to contend with xenophobic violence directed at the flood of immigrants and refugees to the country. South Africa. Many of the young frustrated people from slums perpetuated such elements, attributing them to immigrants.
As the global population continues to grow, there is increasing pressure from overcrowding, which increases the risk of disease transmission. More than 1 billion people in developing countries live without adequate shelter or in unacceptable housing. More than 1 billion do not access safe water, and some 2.6 billion people have no access to adequate sanitation all of which are essential for good health.
“In 2000, the urban population was 47% of the world population,” As Prof. Kabaasa noted, “Now it is 60%. We are faced with many threats like high temperatures, melting of Rwenzori and Kilimanjaro mountain caps, more mosquitoes and tse tse flies. While we are also driving towards industrialisation and globalisation, floods are coming in.”
With risks arising from population rise, coupled with global warming and environmental degradation more glaring effects remain to be seen and felt. It remains to be seen that the rising level of the educated masses in Uganda and the growing middle class will bring about systematic and natural population regulation.
Joshua Masinde