August 10, 2024, was a dark day all over Uganda following the collapse of a “mountain” of garbage at Kiteezi landfill where refuse from Kampala and surroundings has been deposited for decades. Scores were killed, others injured. The country was stunned.
In our collective agony, however, important lessons must be learnt in best practices for waste management. Kampala is a city bustling with activity daily-with markets, supermarkets, ordinary shops, hotels and restaurants, factories, warehouses, workshops, homes, offices and so on all churning out refuse in ample quantities. A city with a population estimated at 4,050,826 raises significant quantity of garbage per person (on average). From what has been said by KCCA in the aftermath of the tragedy, Kiteezi has long passed its holding capacity and was supposed to have been relocated elsewhere in the past save for lack of money. In short, the collapse of the landfill wouldn’t have missed a scientist’s and prophet’s eye(s).
While some heads ought to roll for the oversight of leaving the “mountain” to grow as if setting it up as a tourist attraction near the city, the question is why that “gold” hadn’t been “mined” to benefit the country. Again, heads ought to roll on the strength of the question posed by His Excellency the President while extending his message of condolence and sympathy to the victims and their families.
“Who allowed people to live near such a potentially hazardous and dangerous heap?” the President asked.
These answers are needed because someone needs to shoulder these acts of negligence and poor planning of our urban areas. Kampala should never build up a name as a “city of garbage”, risking its leaders being nicknamed “lords of the flies.” It’s a tragic losing precious life but out of the catastrophe, something beneficial to the survivor population must be done to prevent a reoccurrence of the same but also to bring value out of garbage as a new culture of handling the inevitable leftovers from both organic and inorganic solids.
Nature-based refuse such as that from gardens (agricultural leftovers) generate more and more daily waste. An increase in population means more production and consumption, leading to faster accumulation of garbage, with tons of disposal scattered in dumps. For as long as cencus results show a population rise, then “garbage explosions” are to be expected. In general, that’s why there is a sanitation challenge in Uganda’s urban areas. Garbage is dumped without receiving proper treatment.
In the face of an increasing population which narrows the amount of land available to accommodate huge quantities of waste, plus a climate change crisis arising from the depletion of the natural green endowments and impact of baldy disposed solids like polythene, plastics and metals which negatively affect soil quality, it’s high time that something drastic is done to prevent the further buildup in a heap of garbage on Ugandan soil. Deterrent penalties should be set for littering and dumping sites established to act strictly as collection centers where garbage is held there temporarily before being ferried away for sorting and recycling. No question; recycling is the way to go! Not only isn’t the process environmentally friendly but it’s also a good way to prevent wastage.
Must of the garbage is from agricultural produce of leftover food. Ugandans surprisingly waste food on a notable scale. It may be what they harvested and couldn’t consume or sell or leftover cooked food from homes, hotels, functions and so on. Ugandans should learn to optimise food resources. Prepare and serve what you can eat and finish! Give the rest to the needy if you can’t finish it, or store it well, heat again and serve it at other meals. Preparing food that can’t be consumed wastes energy, labour and generates needless refuse. Farmers should quickly adopt value-addition methods so as to preserve their produce for the near and far markets over longer periods of time. That’s why the small scale industry promotion agenda of the President is logical and farsighted.
For plastics, wood, metal, glass, rubber and other solids, new things can readily be made out of them. There are a number of startups engaged in recycling; plastic to plastic, glass to glass, rubber to rubber, metal to metal, wood to wood, paper to paper! Garbage can also be turned into manure, fertiliser, or compressed into briquettes for energy instead of wood. It’s said that matter can neither be created nor destroyed; it only changes form. Perhaps the rate of adoption of recycling technology is low and needs to be fire up, literally, in memory of the Kiteezi tragedy if common logic isn’t pushing us fast enough.
While the collapse of the landfill was an instant and notable killer, no doubt the effect it had on the environment had affected more lives all this time, including death from disease associated with the dirt buildup. A landfill is a breeding ground for the most varied insects and rodents, capable of transmitting many serious diseases. More to that, the decomposition of organic matter thrown into the soil produces an acidic and fetid liquid called slurry that infiltrates groundwater and irreversibly contaminates nature. Garbage produces methane gas which, in addition to contaminating the soil, is one of the main agents of the greenhouse effect which is a lot more harmful to the air than carbon dioxide.
Therefore, let’s agree to add value to garbage and save lives instead of losing our people due to the consequences of inability to quickly innovate around challenges encountered. Alternative landfills for Kampala have been identified but by all means should we wait for them to “explode” when science has smarter solutions to work with. The city’s population is projected to hit 11million by 2040. If another “Kiteezi” ever occurs, then surely our planners will be adjudged to carry garbage in their heads!
The author is the Deputy Presidential Press Secretary
Contact: faruk.kirunda@statehouse.go.ug
0776980486/0783990861
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