KAMPALA – Environmentalists are concerned by the absence of proper solid waste management infrastructure in the country to help halt the effect of plastic pollution.
Speaking at the launch of World Earth Day held at Port Bell shores of Lake Victoria in Nakawa Division, Mr. Muzaphal Ssekulima, the director Koyinawe Waste Management Services said the available waste collection points are not serving the intended purpose.
He suggested that the country needs to adapt to new industry innovations such as an underground waste management bank, a pit dug 8 feet deep and 4*3 wide and width that is constructed and covered.
“The underground bank helps to collect the waste away from the surface and keep it away from wind because most plastics are very light and they can easily get carried away by the wind,” he said.
The bank, Mr. Ssekulima said helps to protect recyclable materials from the effect of direct sunshine
“Once a recyclable material is exposed to the sun, it heats them and they lose their recyclability and therefore, it is very important that as we promote recycling, we should equally incorporate underground bankers,” Mr. Ssekulima told PML Daily.
He said that the lack of recycling facilities in the country leads to a higher volume of waste being transferred to landfills and that, a lot of things that may be recycled or composted, such as several forms of plastic, are rejected by the few recycling facilities.
Nakawa East MP, Eng. Ronald Balimwezo Nsubuga said several people have died in low-lying slum communities in Nakawa Division due to flash floods during the current rainy season.
Balimwezo attributed the flash floods to among others blockage of drainage channels with solid wastes. Many of the households in slum communities in Nakwa have been reported to indiscriminately manage their waste.
The problem is likely to escalate with the estimated increase in population and consequently unplanned urbanization resulting in slum development in Nakawa and others peripheries of Kampala.
.“Kampala only generates about 2500 tons of waste but KCCA and its private stakeholders collect only 1300 tons from 48 and 54 zones and you find more than 1200 tons end up in trenches and others are burned away hence causing air pollution,” Balimwezo said, Mr warning companies with direct influence on lakes which do not have recycling plants especially those producing plastics, to get them before the enforcement starts.
“We are not going to tolerate such impunity. We are going to tighten the regulations and the culprits will be punished. We shall not allow investors to come here to make money and go and leave our lake contaminated,” Mr Balimwezo said.
On his part, Mr Godfrey Luyombya, the speaker of Nakawa urban council asked the authority to enforce a Cabinet decision of not collecting money from the urban poor living in slum areas for their garbage.
Ms Hellen Kasujja, the Executive Director of the Community Integrated Development Initiative (CIDI), an organization aiming at protecting the environment has provided a five-day free waste management service to the community of Port Bell among them including emptying people’s toilets.
International Mother Earth Day provides an opportunity to raise public awareness of the challenges to the well-being of the planet and all the life it supports.
The Day also recognizes a collective responsibility, as called for in the 1992 Rio Declaration, to promote harmony with nature and the Earth, and to achieve a just balance among the economic, social, and environmental needs of the present and future generations of humanity.
The 53rd anniversary will be celebrated on Saturday, April 22, with people encouraged do their bit and join the millions worldwide who take part.
