Robert Mwanje & Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa
10 May 2008
Kiteezi — You have possibly seen an overloaded Kampala City Council (KCC) garbage truck moving out of the city centre heading to Mpererwe -Kiteezi landfill located a long Gayaza Road.
Kiteezi is the designated garbage-dumping site in Kampala. The site was gazetted by KCC in 1996 as a ground for cleaning minerals and chemicals from real garbage.
The garbage dumped at Kiteezi is weighed before it is discharged into the landfill to ascertain how much tonnage of garbage is collected on a daily basis.
However, a snap visit to the dumping site proves KCC's inefficiency in the management of the site is fast turning into a health nightmare for Kiteezi residents. Flies hover over reeking heaps of garbage, which are scattered all over the site.
The residents fear that an outbreak of diseases like cholera and dysentery is imminent since excretions from the site end up in the nearby water sources.
Ms Ruth Najjuka, a resident describes the situation as unbearable and a disaster waiting to happen. "At times the garbage stinks and you feel like abandoning home but the bad thing is that we have no where to go. Our lives are in danger since toxins from the garbage end up in our water sources," a visibly worried Najjuka said.
It is not only human life that is threatened but also aquatic life in the wetlands and nearby streams which are exposed to high zinc sulphide levels in the water due to chemicals from the site.
The residents have now petitioned the city authorities, threatening to stage a demonstration protesting KCC's failure to manage the dumping ground.
Conservation experts urge that the high discharge of toxic gases from Kiteezi which contains approximately 50 per cent methane gas is released into the atmosphere and could contribute 2-4 per cent of green house gases thus creating a vast ecological disaster in the area.
Methane has 21 times the global warming impact of carbon dioxide on a weight basis over a 100-year time horizon. This implies that the futuregeneration is likely to suffer the consequences of the methane seepages at Kiteezi.
In 2002, the Ministry of Water and Environment had ordered KCC to stop dumping garbage in the area, an order which the city authorities defied. The ministry had wanted to carry out additional chemical tests to establish the level of pollution in the area. The ministry's intervention followed complaints from Kiteezi residents.
Towards the close of 2007 KCC complained that government had failed to remit Shs3.8 billion to supplement the city council's efforts to collect garbage in and around the city and find condusive place for dumping it .
The central government had initially pledged to give KCC Shs3.8 billion to hire private firms to collect garbage but this was not fulfilled. In October, employees of garbage collection firms hired by KCC went on strike, demanding Shs2.5 billion in arrears.
Kampala city's population of about 2.5 million people, produces over 1,500 tonnes of garbage daily of which KCC can only dispose about 700 tonnes.
KCC senior solid waste engineer in charge of the Kiteezi garbage site, Mr Maurice Kairania, blames what he called 'mafia forces' in the running and management of the landfill.
Mr Kairania has since resigned his job because of the 'mafia' forces in KCC. He said some KCC officials he couldn't name for fear of his life, were threatening committed council employees to secure lucrative garbage collection tenders and pocket the money.
"Some people in KCC have double standards, when a competent person takes up a contract to manage the landfill they will always fail him. I personally receive anonymous calls threatening my life over management of the garbage site; one of our colleagues [Mr Eddie Ssemanda] was poisoned recently," he said.
Mr Kairania said he was worried of KCC's future where saboteurs are mainly technocrats holding big offices at City Hall. "The problem in KCC is not from the political wing but from the technical side.
Some people's mission in KCC is to fail others. A good example is the way some people are failing Otada to manage the Kiteezi site through mobilising villagers against the contractor to create crisis," he said.
The Deputy Mayor, Ms Florence Namayanja said the problem would be rectified in a month's time. She said the contractor (Otada) has been cautioned and failure to improve would lead to termination of their contract.
According to technical reports, KCC spends Shs 2 billion on garbage management annually. About Shs150 million is spent on maintaining the landfill.
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