Kawempe leaders divert garbage trucks to backfill swamp
A truck dumps garbage at a swamp in Kawempe, Kampala, yesterday. PHOTO | STEPHEN OTAGE
What you need to know:
- According to Mr Jjuko Lukanga, the secretary for development, they decided to backfill the wetland because since the 1950s Asians have been using the place to mine clay and make bricks.
Local Council leaders of Tuula Cell, in Kawempe Division, Kampala, say they have allowed garbage trucks to temporarily dump garbage in a swamp in their village so as to reclaim it.
In an interview yesterday, Mr Joseph Sserunkuma the Tuula Cell chairman, said leaders held a meeting with the area youth to find out whether it was agreeable with them that garbage trucks, which were stopped from dumping garbage in Kiteezi three weeks ago, can be diverted to their swamp so that the garbage can be used to backfill holes which have been left in the area after clay mining so as to reclaim their football field.
“I am one of the people who started that football field and because of brick making, we have been losing portions because of the holes that have been left after scooping the clay for making bricks. We are using the garbage to backfill the holes and we shall cover it with soil so that we can have our football pitch back,” he said.
Asked why they have allowed the garbage trucks to fill the garbage in areas, which are further than the purported football field that they want to reclaim, Mr Sserunkuma said when they started dumping the garbage in the area, other people who own land in the swampy area, followed suit and they have no control over their decision .
According to Mr Jjuko Lukanga, the secretary for development, they decided to backfill the wetland because since the 1950s Asians have been using the place to mine clay and make bricks.
He added that after Asians were expelled from Uganda by President Idi Amin in the 1970s, residents started mining clay.
Mr Lukanga also explained that the place has been having gaping holes which have claimed lives of children who fell into water-filled holes.
He said when officials from the National Environment Authority (NEMA) visited the area, they explained to them their plan and they were given a go-ahead to backfill the swamp.
However, some residents who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, accuse the LCs of conniving with an unidentified army officer living within the area and who also owns a piece of land in the wetland, to backfill the land to create plots of land for sale.
When this newspaper visited the site yesterday, the atmosphere felt like a new Kiteezi landfill as human beings and scavengers, competed for garbage as trucks kept dumping at the newly opened site.
When asked whether they have identified a new site to dump garbage, Mr Daniel NiweAbine, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) spokesperson, said much as the Kawempe site does not fall within KCCA’s jurisdiction, they are aware that government directed all the garbage to be taken to a site in Nkumba, Katabi Town Council in Wakiso District.
