Kosovo is a slummy area found between Nsambya and Katwe, as expected it is heavily populated so naturally the garbage accumulated daily is high.
Kampala city authority is mandated to collect garbage free of charge in slums however, they had been charging the people of Kosovo 12,000/= shillings per month per household or business to collect garbage but even then, the garbage was collected once a week.
As fate would have it, someone tipped the people of Kosovo on how they were being made to pay for a free service, this led to a strike, garbage was ferried to the main roads hence blocking traffic.
They threatened to carry the garbage to the KCCA offices and two days into the strike, peace was returned when they were promised free garbage collection services on a daily basis.
Unfortunately that has become the norm in Uganda, people are cheated, they pay heavily for free services, to gain the attention of government on issues affecting the population, they have to strike, how many more slums will have to strike before the government does its part?
The garbage situation in Kampala has reached epidemic levels, the few service providers enlisted by the city authorities are incompetent and unable to cover the whole area, even when paid, at most they collect garbage once a week.
Each household has to find alternative means of disposing of garbage, burning, burying, dumping garbage in drainage systems are some of the ways they are ridding themselves of garbage.
Its no wonder that when there is an outbreak of cholera or any other contagious diseases they are hard to contain.
The landfills of kiteezi are overflowing and already pose a health hazard to people residing in that area, the stench that fills the air is sickening, to think that this area is home to several communities and they are resigned to living with this stench is a shame on our government.Outbreaks of typhoid and malaria are rampant here.
Several proposals have been given to KCCA on how to manage this garbage crisis to no avail, recycling,turning the garbage into biofuel among others, however, nothing has come out of these proposals.
Polythene is also a big issue for our health and environment, they have been banned severally by our lawmakers. however, after cries the business community, the ban has always been lifted.
Neighboring countries like Rwanda and Kenya have successfully banned polythene out of their countries as we look on, this is one waste that will not decompose and is a real threat to the environment.
We can only hope that the powers that be do not wait for Kampala to be buried in the garbage before they find a sustainable solution to a problem that has already reached epidemic levels.
