Unwanted: Nkumba residents say no to KCCA garbage trucks
A Kampala Capital City Authority truck dumps garbage at the Nkumba-Bukolwa landfill in Katabi Town Council, Wakiso District, on August 12, 2024. Photo/Paul Adude.
What you need to know:
- Leaders in the area say garbage from the capital city will quickly overwhelm their landfill, of which only about eight acres remain unused.
Residents and leaders of Nkumba-Bukolwa in Katabi Town Council, Wakiso District, have expressed dismay after several garbage trucks including some belonging to Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) were yesterday seen dumping rubbish at a nearby 14-acre landfill which borders a protected wetland.
The uproar, which comes days after a landslide at Kiteezi, the country’s biggest landfill in Kasangati Town Council, also in Wakiso District, killed at least two dozen people and injured several others.
“It’s unfortunate, the calamity that befell in Kampala over the weekend where several people lost their lives and we condole with them but we don’t want the same thing to happen in Entebbe,” Entebbe Deputy Mayor Charles Kabwama said at a press conference yesterday. “The rumour that we agreed with KCCA to dump here their garbage is false, it isn’t known to us. The garbage that Kampala emits will fill this place within one week.”
Mr Kabwama said Entebbe Municipal Council has halted further dumping of garbage from Kampala City into the landfill which currently serves Makindye Ssabagabo, Katabi and Kajjansi town councils.
“The area as you can see is small and we don’t want to encroach and contaminate the [National Environment Management Authority-gazetted] wetland and as you can see around it, it has been encroached on by people who have constructed residential houses,” the official said. “We have been looking for partners to recycle this garbage into useful business ventures, so we can’t allow more garbage to be dumped here.”
Mr Richard Sekyondo, the chairperson of Entebbe Division B, said garbage from the capital city will quickly overwhelm their landfill, of which only about eight acres remain unused.
“When you look at the tonnes of rubbish that KCCA handles daily, we can’t manage their rubbish for a single week, they should take that garbage to their alternative landfill in Ddundu, Mukono District which measures 135 hectares.”
As the search for survivors turned into efforts to recover the remains of victims, a fresh crisis is brewing over where to dump the tonnes of garbage collected around Kampala. The site in Ddundu has never been commissioned, in part due to opposition from residents worried that a garbage landfill will undermine their health and property values.
Mr Fabrice Rulinda, the Entebbe Municipality mayor, said there is no agreement with KCCA to use the Nkumba Bukolwa landfill, even temporarily.
“I have not agreed anything with KCCA,” he said in a telephone interview. “I have never met or discussed with anyone from KCCA, I can assure you I have never discussed anything with KCCA, please kindly ask KCCA to clarify how they reached this decision to dump garbage there.”
KCCA spokesperson Daniel Nuwabiine is yet to respond to repeated requests for comment.
Mr Julius Mwesigye, a resident of Nkumba and conservation educator at Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, said residents are worried about a sudden increase in garbage dumped in the neighbourhood landfill.
He said: “We are alarmed that almost every 15 minutes there is a truck coming to dump garbage, as members of the community we find it dangerous to our livestock and hazardous to our lives. This waste brought here isn’t sorted, it should be sorted from the source of collection in communities so that when it is brought people can put it to different uses from agriculture to recycling of plastic, glasses among other things.”
Ms Joan Atieno, who has lived her entire life in Nkumba, expressed concern over the increase in the number of garbage trucks heading towards the landfill.
“On Sunday as I was taking a random stroll around my home, I saw very many big garbage trucks from Kampala that I had never seen before in our area, I took photos but I am happy today our leaders have stopped the garbage trucks from dumping more rubbish here,” she said.
Another resident, Mr Hussein Kyeyune, added: “We understand a problem befell in Kiteezi but this isn’t right, we are not going to allow this, on a normal day it’s between 10 to at most 25 trucks that dump garbage here but today we are seeing trucks every 15 minutes coming to dump garbage here, it’s too much!”
