By Kaleb Yiiki

Arua

Entrepreneurs in Arua City have been called upon to invest in garbage collection to rid the city of the Current pollution. Solid waste is one of the greatest challenges facing urban authorities today; with the amount of waste generated exceeding their capacity both technical and financial to collect and dispose off.
 
Uganda is facing rapid urbanization of 5.1% per annum, leading to overcrowding and the development of slums and informal settlements with poor waste management practices. Urban dwellers generally consume more resources than rural dwellers, and so generate large quantities of solid waste and sewage.
 
Molly Atizuyo, who works as a garbage Collector in Arua City, says the biggest challenge in garbage collection is that those from households mix the waste with water and this makes the waste stink after two to three days and others also mix them with broken pieces of bottles. She thus requested those households to separate their waste from bottles and Piercing items. “Let there be garbage collection points along the roads with guides to help the newcomer in the city know where to drop their garbage.” She recommended.
 
Francis Oguta, the Manager, Dikiri ber Group in Arua City who has been in the garbage Collection for the Last Ten Years says Garbage Collection is a collective responsibility of everyone who is both a visitor and a resident yet most of the people in the City still believe that this is the responsibility of the city Council since to remove their garbage.


Francis Oguta, the Manager, Dikiri ber Group in Arua City
 
Mr. Oguta says that his Entity Charges the Lowest Rates in the City, ranging from Ugandan Shillings 4,000 and above depending on the amount of Garbage generated per household. He gave the importance of garbage collection from the Household points in that if not done, it affects the households and the situation worsens more especially during the rainy seasons.
 
He urged the City council to continue in supporting the entity to pay their services timely as over the contract terms to ensure that they do their work smoothly. “Sincerely speaking if somebody can be able to pay for a household rent of about Ugandan Shillings 600,000 or a million shillings and spend more than 500,000 shillings or more on food in a month, I don’t know what really stops them from spending 10,000 monthly on garbage collection.” He wondered.
 
One of the wastes that have been dumped in forests and bushes in Arua City is medical Wastes from Private Clinics. The City authorities in Arua City have warned that those involved in unscrupulous dumping of medical Waste will lose their practicing License.
 
However, the City authorities expect investors who can manage to acquire Garbage Collection trucks to do Garbage collection business. Apangu Godfrey, the health inspector for Arua City said that Arua City Council advertised for private service providers for Garbage collection but did not attract service providers with the capacity to carry out garbage collection in bigger capacities.
 
Mr. Apangu thus encouraged more local investors to apply to the Town clerk Arua City Council to provide garbage collection services and the office of the health inspector will then verify the applicant for experience on a similar assignments and competence to offer the services. “Business men should look at Garbage collection as a lucrative business opportunity for them to earn better income, since they will sort the waste such as plastics, metals and non-plastics from the source then this will make them as suppliers for recyclers and garbage Plants.” He recommended. 
 
Statistics from NEMA show that plastics take a lion’s share waste with over 600 tonnes being produced every day throughout the country. Given that only 40% of this waste is collected and disposed of properly, the remaining 60% finds its way into the environment leading to a number of problems.

COVER PHOTO: Grabage dumped at ungazzeted place in Arua City By Kaleb Yiiki