KCCA, slum dwellers share waste disposal costs in Covid times

In a bid to ensure better health standards in city slums during the Covid-19 pandemic, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has embarked on an exercise aimed at giving incentives to the most vulnerable households to enable them empty their toilets when they get filled.

The exercise is a component of a four-year program titled: “City Wide Inclusion Sanitation Program (CWIS)”.

CWIS commenced in 2018 with funding from Bill and Melinda Gates and seeks to achieve universal access to adequate and sustainable sanitation and hygiene for all and also end open defecation in the city.

Ms Julian Musiime, the CWIS’ Programme Coordinator private sector development and sanitation marketing told Daily Monitor in an interview that the overall objective is to improve sanitation and hygiene in the city’s vulnerable communities through division leadership for sustainability.

“We came up with this activity and organised to roll it across all the five divisions of the city. It involves removing faecal sludge and solid waste from communities and promoting sanitation and hygiene practices within these communities and also to strengthen the leadership because the involvement of both political and local leaders helps us to sustain programmes in our communities,” Ms Musiime said.

She, however, said that they couldn’t give incentives to all households due to a small resource envelope.

Breakdown

KCCA gave each division 40 trips of emptying with four cubic metres of cesspool trucks and these were mainly to empty community toilets. Communal toilets are public facilities which are used by a bigger number of people.

This means that overall, 200 trips were given to all the five divisions.

They also gave out 280 barrels of gulpers in each division. The overall number of barrels for all the five city division is 14,000. This means that at least 14,000 households have since benefited from the exercise. A gulper is a mechanical sludge emptying device.

The gulper technology empties the barrel while the cesspool trucks empty the community toilets.

For the barrels, both KCCA and the households share the cost. But for the communal toilets, KCCA foots the entire bill.

Ms Musiime said that if a toilet facility produces four barrels of faecal sludge, KCCA pays for either one or two depending on the quantity of faecal sludge and the beneficiary pays for the rest.

One barrel is emptied at Shs25, 000 and this means that if a toilet produces three barrels of faecal sludge, the beneficiary pays Shs50, 000 while KCCA pays Shs25,000.

She explains that they use Community Activation Team (CAT) members in all the five divisions who identify the most vulnerable households and thereafter give them emptying vouchers. The vouchers are only valid for one month.

The exercise is also used to sensitise communities on how to access service providers to empty their toilets.

KCCA has a list of service providers who empty toilets in the city and when a person calls KCCA seeking for emptying services, they are connected to the service provider.

“All this is part of the Weyonje (Clean yourself), a sanitation programme and when you look at Covid-19 pandemic, one of the practices being encouraged is handwashing and this is also one of our key messages where we promote handwashing for improved hygiene and sanitation. The exercise has also promoted the emptying culture in our vulnerable communities,” she says.

The chairperson of Mugwanya zone in Makindye division Mr Muhammad Mayanja says that government should construct communal toilets across the city division to mitigate poor waste disposal.

“The major problem is that most of land in slums is sandy and this makes it hard for households to construct better facilities that can last for many years. If government identifies a place in a community and constructs a standard toilet for the public, it would really help many slum dwellers who lack toilet facilities yet this a key sanitation component,” he says.

Residents speak out

Ms Justine Mukabanga, one of the beneficiaries of the programme in Kiwuunya zone in Nakulabye says that the incentive given to her by KCCA saved her from the exorbitant fees charged by cesspool trucks.

“Cesspool trucks charge a lot of money to empty a toilets yet most of us slum dwellers can’t afford it. KCCA paid for one gulper at Shs25, 000 and I also paid for two gulpers at Shs50, 000. This made a very big difference because I actually spent less from what I have been paying to other service providers,” she said.

Ms Mukabanga asked KCCA to continue with the exercise, saying that it will help very many vulnerable households who cannot foot the entire bill of emptying their toilets when they get full.

Ms Musiime acknowledges the need to continue with the exercise because most vulnerable communities are willing to empty their toilets but have limited capacity.

Besides giving incentives, the authorities are also looking at taking a subsidy model in Kampala that can help in terms of emptying and construction of toilet facilities for vulnerable communities.

The chairperson of Kiwuunya zone seven Nakulabye in Rubaga division Mr Jimmy Businge says that government through KCCA should consider setting up toilet facilities in the area as a way of promoting sanitation in the city.

But he notes that the drainage facilities which were constructed about a decade ago have since collapsed, something he says leaves both homes and toilets flooded especially during a downpour.

“KCCA has really helped us because most people didn’t have money to empty the toilets since they weren’t working. However authorities should devise means of constructing toilet facilities in slums or give slum dwellers incentives to enable them construct better toilet facilities since most of them don’t have money,” he says.

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