Writer: Odoobo C. Bichachi. PHOTO/COURTESY
Climate, environment and health are among the least popular subjects in the media. Newspapers headlining with such subjects hardly get picked by readers compared to say when they lead with political ones. On television, these stories often prompt many to reach out for the remote so as to switch to “more interesting things”.
Yet these subjects are among the things that have a big impact on our day-to-day lives. How to get audiences to notice them is therefore a constant puzzle for reporters and editors. One way to do it is Nieman Lab reporter Neel Dhanesha’s way. She says: “A lot of times, people are not drawn in when climate is the top line. So I like to start with [a question like] ‘OK, what’s affecting your daily life?’” (See, “The transit beat is becoming the climate beat” – www.niemanlab.org). Today if you asked Ugandans living in any of its urban and peri-urban areas what was affecting their daily lives, chances are they will mention garbage, potholes, floods, etc. They may also add malaria, cholera, etc.
But how do you get them to take interest in garbage or floods stories and be part of the solution, not the problem? Link it to their everyday life, to their lifestyle, and to how they can be part of the solution, not just the outrage. Since the Kiteezi garbage landfill disaster last month, the media – formal and social – has outdone itself in covering the tragedy, and rightly so, after all lives were lost! Currently, there’s an ongoing social media “exhibition” of garbage around the country, but especially around Kampala.
However, most of this garbage reporting (no pun intended) is focused on the problem and who is perceived as responsible for the problem – government and politicians – are the devil. As a result, it has allowed everyone else to wash their hands off the garbage problem and come off as saints when they are at the centre of generating it and wantonly disposing of it. Mainstream media, therefore, needs to rise above the emotions of social media and take a solution journalism approach to drive conversation and possible solutions.
Yes, the government and various categories of leaders take final responsibility but a torch needs to be shone on ourselves (at individual and group level) to show how we contribute to the problem, and how we can contribute to the solution. For instance, a lot of garbage generated at household level in urban areas is banana and potato peels. The other is leftover cooked food, plastics used to purchase items, etc. Among young families, add diapers, etc. It is all dumped in one trash bin for local authorities to dispose of from hundreds of thousands of households, or in the drainage channel to be washed away by the rain. Such compounded garbage cannot be recycled or processed into one form or another. It can only be dumped in a heap somewhere – Kiteezi?
Management of garbage at the point of generation is therefore the first solution to overcoming the problem. Indeed more than failing to collect the garbage, this is the biggest point of failure of leadership and us ordinary citizens who are now holding our noses at the garbage skips, taking photos, and posting on social media.
But this requires education, sensitization, and engineering a culture change in food procurement, processing, and disposal habits. A social video by one Tony Ofungi that I watched on the Nature Uganda WhatsApp group shows that it is possible to manage garbage at his little Kiteezi in his home, rather than waiting to build a mountain at Kiteezi. Should, for instance, truckloads of matooke, cattle, ffene (jackfruit), banana leaves continue to be ferried into the city or should foods be processed at the micro level before being retailed in the city? Would the peelings if processed at farm level not be used as organic manure at the farms?
Plastics and paper are the other big waste. It also causes flooding arising from blocked drains. Fortunately, it can be recycled if it is sorted at the point of generation from food waste and other solids such as scrap metal. But many Ugandans simply throw it anywhere – from speeding vehicles, etc.
The media can help highlight such stories and solutions, then hold the government responsible for the bigger picture garbage.
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