Govt launches waste management campaign

Kabarole. A new campaign code-named “zero waste”, aimed at making Uganda the cleanest country in Africa by 2021, has been launched in Fort Portal.
The Fort Portal Declaration, 2018 was launched by the State minister for Local Government, Ms Jennifer Namuyangu, at Leiuseux Hotel at the weekend.
The declaration with a tag “Clean up Uganda projects” tasks all urban authorities in the country to ensure that their towns are clean, attractive, healthy and environmentally sustainable to live, work, visit and invest in.
The project spearheaded by Plawaste Consult Limited aims at using Fort Portal as a pilot to oversee the proposed tourism city and ensure that Uganda is ranked the cleanest country on the continent.
“There is need to adopt and support the transition from a throw-away society to a zero waste world through policies and best practice of waste reduction at source, repair, re-use and recycling,” Ms Namuyangu said at the mayors conference.
She added: “This, therefore, means that any uncontrolled disposal of litter, including plastics, will not only be a problem to public cleanliness but also a problem to the municipality’s image, which can have negative economic repercussions.”
The minister, however, called upon all municipal leaders to provide garbage disposal bins and waste management facilities, mobilise communities and demonstrate to them how to manage waste, ensure adequate funding of zero waste initiatives and enact by-laws and policies that support zero waste action plan.
“Poorly managed municipal solid waste contributes to resource depletion, economic lock-in, air pollution, and public health impacts such as diarrhoea, asthma, dengue fever, among others,” she observed.
The Fort Portal Municipality mayor, the Rev Kintu Muhanga Ateenyi, said: “Collective responsibility has helped Fort Portal Municipality to stay clean as an initiative that was started by my predecessors.”
Lira Municipality mayor Mike Ogwang Olwa Veve said: “The biggest problem in all urban authorities is waste management. I therefore call upon Plawaste Consult Limited to immediately come to my town after Fort Portal and then to the rest of the country.”
According to Plastic Ocean, nearly 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year worldwide, half of which is for single use.
More than eight million tonnes of plastic is dumped into water bodies every year.
Plastic Oceans International is a global non-profit organisation that addresses the issues of plastic pollution and how it impacts waters, sea life and humans.
A research conducted in October by Earth Day Network revealed that plastic pollution is harming the planet through the release of greenhouse gases specifically methane and ethylene when exposed to the sun.