Lukwago calls upon fellow mayors to cooperate

Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has called upon division mayors, councillors and town clerks in the capital city to ‘deliver services to their people’.

Lukwago made the plea on Wednesday during a ‘Mayor’s Dialogue’ in which he was elected interim president of mayors and deputised by the mayor of Nansana Reginah Bakitte.

In attendance where the KCCA Director Public Health and Environment, all division urban mayors of Kampala, metropolitan mayors, Authority and Division Councilors and Kampala Division Town Clerks.

Lukwago, who has been Kampala Lord Mayor for eight years, asked his contemporaries to commit to; providing Leadership in Municipalities to change the status of the communities, enact relevant policies and regulations or rules to promote sanitation improvement and compliance, support citizen engagement and community awareness drives such as the Weyonje Campaign and lastly reenergize the Mayor’s Forum.

He also expressed his worry regarding the status of sanitation in the city where 6.1 per cent of the communities still practice open defecation, 94 per cent relies on on-site sanitation facilities and only 6 per cent are connected to the public sewer line

“50 per cent of latrines in Kampala in informal settlements are abandoned when the fill-up, 30 per cent are emptied into the environment. 43 per cent of Kampala people access toilets that do not meet standards and there is low sanitation awareness,” Lukwago noted.

Lukwago however, appreciated KCCA for the great work of solid waste management in the city where statistics now show that the collection rate for Fecal sludge has improved from 43 per cent in 2016 to 50 per cent while Solid Waste is over 50 per cent from 35 per cent in 2016.

“There isn’t any law to curb poor practices in the City hence KCCA is developing an Ordinance to regulate the Faecal Sludge Management (FSM).  activities along the sanitation value chain for example; promotion of minimum standards and licensing of service providers,” he said

Establishment of institutional collaboration platforms including; establishment of the Kampala City and Metropolitan Alliance of Mayors on WASH with an overall objective of promoting Water Sanitation and Hygiene through advocacy, resource mobilisation and community empowerment.