NMG-U, 7 companies partner on plastic waste management
Uganda Junior Rangers, a group of orphans, remove plastic bottles from Nakivubo Channel in Lake Victoria on Tuesday last week. Photo | Stephen Otage
What you need to know:
- Participating companies include Nile Breweries Ltd, Uganda Prisons, Centenary Group, Scania, Nema, Balimwezo Foundation, and Ndi Ku Mulamwa.
The Nation Media Group in partnership with seven other companies have rolled out a plastic waste management campaign around Lake Victoria in Port Bell Luzira, Kampala.
The initiative, which was launched on Tuesday last week, aims at ending plastic pollution around the lake.
Mr Joshua Watwaluma, the brand manager for Monitor Publications Ltd and The East African Newspaper, said NMG-Uganda is joining the initiative because it is in line with its agenda to have a habitable environment.
“When we were approached for this partnership, we did not hesitate because it is in line with our agenda of promoting environmental conservation and checking climate change effects” he said.
Participating companies include Nile Breweries Ltd, Uganda Prisons, Centenary Group, Scania, Nema, Balimwezo Foundation, and Ndi Ku Mulamwa.
Ms Pamela Adongo, the programmes officer for Zero Waste Africa, a non-governmental Organisation involved in waste management, narrated how she was stunned by the poor waste management when she visited Port Bell Market in Luzira a month ago.
The market is located on the shores of Lake Victoria.
When she probed how the residents dispose of waste, she was told this was done on an individual basis.
“Individuals clean the market randomly due to lack of necessary equipment with little or no support from Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and yet most of the waste is thrown into Lake Victoria.
“I found children playing in the area with stagnant water harbouring mosquitos. I was told Junior Rangers took the initiative to clean the place because KCCA doesn’t help,’’ she said.
She further explained that they decided to approach other companies to join them in the initiative where they will be sensitising the community on how to organise rubbish in a pleasant way because it is their core business to make communities understand the importance of separating rubbish.
The rubbish will then be recycled.
Asked about the magnitude of the problem, Mr Elizabeth Birungi, the chairperson of Railway Zone at the Landing Site, said it was challenging to manage the waste because different clusters of people use the landing site.
“There are market vendors who sell drinks in plastic wrappings to the fishermen, who discard them into the lake,’’ she said.
