With the ever increasing number of people inhabiting the South Sudan capital of Juba, a worrying situation on the impact caused by the dumping of waste products within the city's vicinity, which has become a worrying phenomenon to all concerned for the impact it will have on the environment.

This can be mostly attributed to lack of proper sanitation facilities due to the improper planning of the city which has no drainage system for the management of domestic waste. The Dumping of garbage in markets also cause another major factor which could lead to water-borne diseases due to decaying matter like human excrement and animal waste in addition to the dumping of non-environmentally friendly products in the like of plastics and oils from the ever looming vehicle maintenance shops in residential areas.

The basic family unit in Juba has no scientific ways of disposing waste products. Take an example of the local bathroom constructed out of either bamboo or iron sheets where a hole is just dug (what they call in the Arabic language "ballahs") where dirty the water, after fermenting for days, is just dumped on the street regardless of its putrid smell and whoever may step or walk on it barefoot. This is particularly harmful to children who, not understanding the contents of the water, play with it and without washing their hands, just continue with whatever comes their way like handling or eating food without properly washing their hands. It is very common to find children in the Juba and elsewhere in South Sudan suffering from all kinds of ailments ranging from diarrhea to skin diseases.

There comes the need to dump other forms of other household waste, a task which has been made almost impossible by lack of proper dumping facilities, thus forcing residents of the various residential areas to just throw them into the streets. It is a common sight in Juba to find plastic bottles (so called crystal) strewn along most streets without taking into consideration that these plastic material will not decompose like other material. Leave alone pop cans. This is ideally a recipe for environmental damage, a fact that should be seriously considered by both the state and national governments.

One other thing we should ask ourselves is: where is the water from all the septic tanks in the ever looming hotels and modem residential areas in the city being dumped? All that' can be suggested is that as there are currently no desalination plants in the country, the sewage water is just taken to the

outskirts of the city and disposed of in any manner, regardless of the fact that it will soon be washed into the nearest rivers, streams, ponds and in the long run, back into our drinking water systems. No wonder citizens are always reporting to hospitals and clinics with various ailments and complaints.

In some countries where this process has gone to an advanced stage, they provide garbage bins of two varying colors to each and every family unit, in what is called "garbage segregation". In this process, there are usually two colors for the bins: blue being for recyclable material like paper cardboard, cans or metal and other recyclable material while on the other hand, the black bins are for any household waste like food or unwanted material.

Sewage water is recycled to the extent that some is even potable in addition to other products beneficial to the environment.

Move around the main markets of Juba like Custom, Malakia, Konyo Konyo, Jebel and other smaller ones. The dumping of garbage is indeed alarming. On the garbage dumping site on the Juba- Yei road, scavengers scramble for whatever they can find of use and sale, taking as examples, plastic bottles which once again find their way to Juba for use in the sale of various local products, expired food items like biscuits, canned foods which also find their way into the city under the very nose of the authorities. How they get into the city is a matter of wonder and concern.

Add to the decaying and deco

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mposing waste material from the various stalls, the issue is further aggravated by people using the dumps as ways to rid themselves from whatever they had consumed the day before, making the odor intolerable when they mix with the already decomposing material. Now come the rains. All this is washed into the markets where vegetables are displayed for sale to unfortunate buyers who are not aware of the hazard of this contaminated items. This should be and must be the responsibility of the health authorities and the authorities in the environmental protection department.

Again when you move around the city, some parts of residential areas have virtually been turned into automobile repair garages. The oil from these vehicles (engine, clutch, gear-box oils) are not properly controlled or dumped, but just let to flow freely. This causes pollution to our rivers, particularly when washed into the rivers by flood rains. The oil kills or chokes any grass growing within a compound, so instead of "keeping Juba Green" becomes "Turn Juba into a desert". The authorities, if they are at all concerned on our environment, take drastic measures by removing and relocating these motor garages to specified central areas, advisably the industrial area for easy supervision. A team to monitor the disposal of toxic waste should be established and given powers to oversee and find proper ways of disposing them. I remember that some years ago, Juba used to be a green area with lots of trees. All these were cut down during the several years of war in the name of construction of "tukuls" or grass-thatched houses. Today, the same is going on despite the fact that other ways of construction are available to most residents of the city. Forests are being destroyed, if not for construction of houses, in the name of cooking amenities like charcoal and it is true to say that this is sometimes without the proper authorization from the concerned authorities. Full trucks loaded with bamboo poles, charcoal and teak poles are always finding their way into the market. Citizens however, are not to blame because of our failure to provide the alternative sources of energy like electricity or gas burning stoves, but this should not be a license for the destruction of our natural habitat.

With proper planning and foresight, a lot could be gained from items like the plastic bottles and other similar material, aluminum cans, scrap metal and the large amount of scrap metal in South Sudan. Looking at it carefully, this area is currently being exploited in by foreign firms who export the scrap iron from us at a relatively low cost, and believe it or not, with high returns because they are re-imported into South Sudan in the form of steel construction rods, pipes, beds, nails and similar other metal products. South Sudanese should critically look into this case and where feasible, embark on such projects instead of slowing outsiders to benefit. The various plastic materials could also be recycled into various household items like chairs, tables, cups, slippers and many more. Aluminum products can in turn be recycled into various useful items. The saw dust from our carpentry workshops which I usually see being set alight in the streets can believe it or not, be compacted to form other usable items like fuel for cooking.

The Ministry of the Environment and local authorities should therefore, take steps in protecting, not only human lives, the environment through taking stringent measures in this area.