Jinja, Mbale residents choke on uncollected garbage

JINJA/MBALE. The districts of Jinja and Mbale still face a challenge of uncollected garbage due to inadequate number of vehicles, understaffed law enforcement officers and ignorance of the public on proper disposal.
Speaking to Daily Monitor at the weekend, the senior assistant Town Clerk of Jinja, Mr Peter Mawerere, said all the four vehicles have broken down because they are old.
“We have four vehicles: A loader, skip loader, tipper and a tractor, but they are all in poor mechanical condition.
“They are overworked and once taken for repair, they take three to four days while the garbage accumulates,’’ he said.
Residents, Mr Mawerere noted, are littering garbage because of limited law enforcement personnel and absence of a by-law that penalises them.
In August 2017, Jinja Central Division Council passed a by-law for every resident to pay Shs500 for any garbage collected from their residences, but it was not implemented due to lack of sensitisation.
The Speaker, Mr Moses Bizitu, said they spend Shs30m monthly on garbage collection which is unaffordable.
“We are now struggling to pay council utilities including garbage collection, town sweeping, street lighting and allowances,’’ Mr Bizitu said.
The Principal Environment and Production Officer, Mr Ernest Nabihamba, said the council lacks a garbage disposal policy and they end up disposing of 90 per cent of the total garbage at the land fill.
On December 14, 2018, the government of Netherlands signed an agreement with Jinja Municipal Council worth Shs2b on how to manage garbage and sponsor studies on solid waste management.

Similar situation
Meanwhile in Mbale, the situation is not any different.
A swarm of flies and an unbearable stench has engulfed Mbale Main Market due to uncollected garbage.
The heaps of garbage at the facility, which have been building up for the past four month, have now cut off the market road, which connects to Mbale Police Barracks.
When Daily Monitor visited the market on Friday morning, a strong stench which is difficult to bear engulfed the area.
The Shs27b market, was built under government’s Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Programme, hosts about 8,338 vendors.
The vendors blame municipal officials over the mess, saying each of them pays Shs300 to the council every month for garbage collection and the farmers who bring their produce to the market pay Shs5,000.
The chairperson Mbale Central market traders association, Mr Ayubu Madoi, said the municipal council has neglected its responsibility of collecting garbage in the market.
However, the Mbale municipal town clerk, Mr Paul Batanda, said they want the vendors themselves to start handling garbage collection.