Adjumani, (UG):- Following the tragic event at the Kiteezi landfall which killed 35 people, residents in various urban councils across the country are deeply concerned about the status of garbage dumping grounds as they are overly on notice over the inefficient management of waste systems which can turn out to be disastrous.
While most public health professionals in Uganda believe that the management of solid waste using landfills is outdated and not sustainable, nonetheless 100% of the urban Authorities in Uganda are using dumping grounds for managing solid waste.
Adjumani town council is among the many urban councils that are facing the challenges of the inherent archaic and ancient solid waste approach which involves the daily transportation of garbage to the landfill which is poorly managed as all sorts of garbage is deposited at the landfill without sorting.
Releasing the information on solid waste management in Adjumani town to members of the fourth estate on Wednesday, September 10, 2024, the Adjumani town clerk Mr Eriku Patrick Keleture says Adjumani town generates about 14 tons of garbage daily and it is collected and transported to the dumping ground which is about 5 kilometres from Adjumani town council from Mondays to Friday’s every week.
“This translates into 70 tons per week, 280 per month and 3,360,000 tons of garbage and yet the vote for waste administration is inadequate as more public health precautionary measures need to be taken especially when residential houses are cropping around the landfill”. The town clerk said.
In the current financial year (2024-2025) the council according to Mr Eriku has voted shs 162m for solid waste management yet the council has an old garbage Truck which is often in the garage forcing the council to hire private tipper Lorries at the average cost of shs 500.000 per day, this he notes is not cost-effective amidst the shoestring budget.
He said the mindset of the town residents towards sanitation hygiene is wanting both at domestic and commercial premises, some unscrupulous traders usually react with negative undertones claiming they pay taxes which is sufficient for managing garbage in the town and do not want to embrace the acquisitions of garbage bins at their premises.
The Adjumani town council chairman Mr.Mangapi Lawrence has cautioned about the risks of public health disaster from poor solid waste management especially at the Unna dumping ground where over 672 billion tones’ of solid wastes have been dumped though considerable stacks have decomposed.
Mr.Mangapi said the council has acquired another one hundred acres of land for a garbage dumping ground in Pachara Sub County which he said will be developed into a modern dumping site where the waste will be sorted and recycled for impending use.
He said the urban council is in advanced plans of procuring a modern garbage compactor truck at the cost of about shs500m.”The truck uses garbage skips rendering it immune to abuse by persons in authority in the urban council and the district since the previous Lorries were irregularly used for transporting construction materials, mourners’ and football fans”.
“We shall strategically engage in waste segregation which involves separating wastes into categories like recyclables, organics and non-recyclables but also recycling which takes into account converting waste materials into new products, reducing landfill waste”
The Adjumani DHO Dr Drametu Dominic said landfills are obsolete and untenable methods of solid waste management signifying that the landfill in Unna should be decommissioned because it is poorly managed, not manned allowing easy access to crooked and devious residents to dump undesirable and adverse wastes to further complicate the public health conditions of the dumpsite.
Dr. Drametu said the irresponsible and reckless dumping of medical waste at landfills should be discouraged by close monitoring of the dumping activities and disclosed that his office has taken a deliberate step to ensure all private medical facilities have incinerators or risk being closed.
The council has in a high-pitched response taken a deliberate exploit to fence off the landfill in Unna with a live fence and employ security guards to man the dumping ground to guarantee unwanted waste like construction debris, medical trash and non-biodegradable materials are not dumped alongside degradable wastes.
The landfill will accordingly be divided into compartments so that when one compartment is filled up it will be allowed to decompose into compost manure which will be distributed to farmers for use as natural manure.
Since achieving town council status in 1995, Adjumani urban council authority has not propelled or instigated a domestic garbage management scheme hence the orthodox use of garbage pits is universally practised but like in any urban council in Uganda the polythene bags and plastic bottles(non-biodegradable wastes) are deposited anywhere.
Adjumani town council faces a crisis as the over two decades old 4 acres landfill in Unna village, Marindi parish in Pachara sub-county is virtually getting chock-full which accentuates the urgent need for improved waste management solutions in the entire district
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