Has Nema lost battle on kaveera waste in Busoga?

A heap of polythene bags and plastics litter Alice Muloki Road outside Jinja Central Market in Jinja City last year. PHOTO/TAUSI NAKATO. 

What you need to know:

  • The polythene bags release toxic chemicals into the soils and clog drainage channels when poorly disposed of.

Polythene bags, popularly known as kaveera, have continued to plague Busoga Sub-region, with Jinja District leaders now saying it’s poor disposal has aided accumulation of hazardous materials in the environment.

The leaders say single-use plastic bags release toxic chemicals into the soils, clog drainage channels, landfills, choke animals and blemish the natural landscape.

Mr Moses Maganda, the Jinja District environment officer, on Wednesday said almost everyone who buys goods in Busoga Sub-region packs them in polythene bags and dispose them of anyhow.  
“Our neighbours in Rwanda and Kenya have eliminated kaveera; and in fact, all the factories that were in Kenya relocated to Uganda,” Mr Maganda said.

“Kenya passed the law on polythene bags in 2017, but in Uganda, kaveera is spread everywhere,’’ he said, adding that Uganda has failed to implement the Finance Act (2009) that bans the use of kaveera yet the East African Community made the same resolution.

Neema factor
Dr Daniel Babikwa, the director of district support coordination and public education at National Environment Management Authority (Neema), said a parliamentary review of the National Environment Act then rendered them powerless. 

“In the amendment of the National Environment Act, we did a benchmarking study with MPs and other technical people in Kenya and Rwanda, submitted the draft (of the Act) when everything was clear and kaveera was to be banned; but when it entered Parliament, everything changed.

“As a technical agency, we are powerless because we cannot change what Parliament has decided. Parliament included the issue of microns yet people at the grassroots don’t  understand microns,’’ Mr Babikwa said.

According to him, the mandate of implementing the ban on kaveera was removed from Nema and given to Uganda National Bureau of Standards.

“Neema was rendered powerless when Parliament gave the powers to UNBS. We cannot implement much as we would like to go ahead,’’ he said, adding that they were only left with a responsibility to sensitise the public on the dangers of using kaveera.

The environmental expert said they were only left with responsibility of sensitising the public.

“We have played our role of sensitising the public; but what disappoints me, is that people who learnt the dangers of using kaveera are still emabrace it,’’ Dr Babikwa said.

Ms Christine Echookit Akello, the Nema deputy executive director, while in Jinja City recently, urged industralists to start recycling kaveera as a way of protecting the environment from plastic pollution.
Across the country, the kaveera menace is felt. Annually, statistics from Nema indicate that about 39,600 tonnes of polythene waste is released into the environment. 

The ban on kaveera
Parliament passed the Finance Act (2009) that imposed a ban on the importation, local manufacture, sale or use of plastic bags but to-date, the ban hasn’t taken effect.

The ban only applies to the thin, single-use plastic carrier bags that are less than 30 microns, which are used for conveyance of goods and liquids. An Excise Duty of 120 per cent was also imposed on other plastic materials.

The implementation of the ban has faced challenges after several manufacturers lobbied for a grace period to empty their stores of the polythene and subsequently, many companies continued circumventing the ban.