Nema penalty scheme: More than meets the eye

What you need to know:

  • Only 40 percent of waste is properly disposed of in Uganda, and of the total waste produced, plastics constitute 600 tonnes every day, with Kampala alone contributing 12 percent

In 2016, while speaking about the maritime economy — the full spectrum of activity associated with the sea — in landlocked nations, the Environment Minister for landlocked Luxembourg said it may seem counterintuitive to some, like putting fire extinguishers on a ship.

When the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) announced that effective April 1, 2023, they shall in addition to existing measures; commence an Administrative Penalty Scheme for environment breaches, including voluntary fines, for littering from cars, or driving a car without a dustbin. This would attract a fine of up to Shs6,000,000. Some took issue with this. I felt that it was close-minded of us.

Only 40 percent of waste is properly disposed of in Uganda, and of the total waste produced, plastics constitute 600 tonnes every day, with Kampala alone contributing 12 percent. The 60 percent poorly disposed waste constitutes litter from, among other sources, car users. This, happening on land, could be as colossal as marine littering, since a lot of litter is likely to end up in rivers, streams, lakes, canals, channels or oceans — that will be my discussion point.

Besides at least 50 percent  of earth’s oxygen coming from oceans, they are also our biggest carbon sink, storing 20 times more than plants and soils — helping mitigate climate disaster by absorbing 30 percent of the carbondioxide caused by human activities. However, oceans are overwhelmed with 75-199 million tonnes of plastic circulating in them, and a yearly addition of 8 million tonnes - that is a garbage truck equivalent every minute. This is concerning. But how do they find their way there?
It is estimated that at least  percent of ocean plastics globally comes from rivers, ranging up to 2.7 million tonnes a year. Fortunately or unfortunately, Uganda sits in  the Greatlakes Region, and most important of these are its rivers including the Nile, that flows into the Mediterranean where they then contribute to ocean pollution. 

When these plastics are washed into the oceans, they make them warmer by emitting methane and ethylene from sunlight exposure which also affects the oceans capacity to produce oxygen.
On that note, the Indian Ocean region continues to be the fastest warming ocean. In 1997; due to irregular warming, strong convection developed over parts of the Horn and Eastern Africa. This resulted in 20-160 percent rainfall excesses that saw Lake Victoria levels rise by 1.7meters. By 1999, it was expected that this level would be maintained for the remainder of that decade.
A decade later in 2019, the region received a record unusual heavy rains of up to 150-400 percent above average, rising water levels in Lake Victoria and other Rift Valley lakes. This was attributed to the Indian Ocean dipole — the difference in sea surface temperatures between the two areas of the Indian Ocean. East Africa lies in the area which experienced the warmer than average surface temperatures and unusual rains.

It is estimated that onsets such as these were top drivers of internal migration, displacing 24.9 million people in 2019, compared to armed conflict and violence at 8.5 million. 
In Uganda  and Kenya, within a few weeks, the rains had displaced more than 200,000 people, and affected several sectors and infrastructure, such as the Nalubaale Dam and a power line skirting the Wakawaka shoreline in 2020. The power outage that followed affected both domestic and industrial users.

Now, there are another 109 million estimated tonnes of plastics roaming rivers world wide, but for low and middle income countries, it would cost an additional $27 billion a year in waste management infrastructure to match their numbers. It would also cost a global financial risk of $100 billion by 2040 if these plastics keep making it to the oceans.
A dustbin in one’s car may seem counterintuitive, especially since we cannot estimate how much plastic from our cars makes it to the ocean, but there is proof that the main sources of marine litter with plastic is land-based, and Uganda plays and suffers its part. Accordingly, there are national and cross-border commitments that Uganda not only has to adhere to, but take a lead on, given its unique location.

Some may be hard to implement, or inconvenient. Nonetheless, they offer an affordable approach to the local and global waste management crisis in the entirety of the ecosystem, if not for our own socioeconomic and environmental vulnerabilities, given current trajectories of population growth, urbanisation and industry.
 Authored by  Roy Lutaaya,  Sociologist (land use, energy and environment)        [email protected]        @lutaaya_roy