ENV’T: LOCAL LEADERS PLAN TO END ILLEGAL GARBAGE DUMPING VICE WITHIN EDIOFE COMMUNITY

A heap of garbage dumped by the roadside in a forest behind garden view restaurant located in Ediofe Mission cell (neighboring Ayiko cell), Komite Ward, Ayivu division in Arua City. Photo// Erema.

By Erema George

Arua City

Local leaders from the two wards of Komite and Alivu, in Ayivu division have revealed plans to join efforts in putting an end to the long standing indiscriminate garbage disposal in the surrounding environment of Ediofe.

This practice has left locals of Ayiko cell in Alivu ward and Ediofe Mission cell in Konite ward in a state of dilemma with the two neighboring cells sometimes blaming each other for the responsibility of mishandling garbage. Many of the residents and their leaders have also said, unknown people have always dumped garbage in these areas during the night as many motorcycle boda boda and raxer riders have been seen ferrying garbage to the nearby forests.

A mixture of food remains and other related household materials disposed at the roadside near the cemetery in Ediofe Mission cell. Photo// Erema.

This has prompted the leaders to make this deliberate move as a way of addressing the risk posing human activity affecting the environment and lives of the people living around these cells;

Stephen Atatia, the newly elected local council I chairperson of Ediofe Missiom cell in Komite ward who was recently sworn in said, he has a plan to sit with his cabinet to discuss a way forward and meet the local council of the neighboring Ayiko cell to put an end to the practice;

“We are going to sit with the cabinet and discuss how we are going to solve this situation. We are going to meet with the nearby LC so that we can see what to do about the garbage management,” Atatia noted.

According to Toko William Wilfred, the LC I Chairperson of Ayiko cell, they had tried the initiative of fighting the practice of garbage mismanagement with Ayivu division and the city council but didn’t succeed. He however expresses the readiness of his cabinet in collaborating with his counterpart cell;

“I’m glad that there’s a new chairperson in mission cell and I am longing to meet him and have a brief word with him to see how we can convene a meeting so that we can overcome this rubbish problem,” he expressed.

Whereas John Bosco Adriko, the LC II chairperson of Alivu cell is hopeful that the collaboration will be helpful in eliminating garbage in the two cells, “All the LCs and their communities have to be vigilant and any person you get throwing those things, we charge them highly because those are places where we get most of the diseases from.”

Piles of garbage packed in sacks containing remains of food materials, used plastic bottle, polythene bags and many other house hold materials have commonly been seen near roadsides in the forests within Ediofe Mission cell with some containing used medical equipment among others.

Garbage mixture of women’s salon products (braids) with polythene bags disposed behind the residence of the nuns of Ediofe. Photo// Erema.

If successful, this move will restore order within the community which has been an illegal dumping site for garbage disposal by unscrupulous people, making it a highly risky area potential for disease outbreaks.

Written by newsroom-radiopacis