Drowning in Waste: Whose responsibility is it to keep Kampala’s sprawl clean?
Reflections from service providers in the trenches of waste management
As Uganda’s population increases, and as many more people leave their ancestral homes to settle in Uganda’s urban and sub-urban centres in search of better life experiences and opportunities, so does the demand for basic social services such as affordable and decent housing, clean water, education, health care, public transport infrastructure and waste management services. More people living in and around Kampala positively correlates with an increase in waste generated. According to Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), the daily garbage generation tonnage amounts to 1500 tons in Kampala alone with approximately 50% collected by KCCA and 33% by the private operators. The 17% uncollected garbage signals the need for efficient solid waste management services.
Kampala city, Uganda’s biggest and most populous urban centre appears to have the waste management challenge under control, specifically, the implementation of the Local Governments (Kampala City Council) (Solid Waste Management) Ordinance — yes, there are laws on SWM — which clearly stipulates the roles of the various actors in solid waste management. Also, the establishment of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) in 2010/11 led to a number of changes and developments, in particular, the Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) project which paved the way for public-private partnerships for improved waste management service delivery. KCCA, under a concession subcontracts the collection, transportation and disposal garbage in its five divisions to private companies while maintaining the awareness/sensitization and advocacy aspects of SWM. The ISWM strategy is off to a fair start, with the garbage collection capacity up from 35% to 90%, and Kampala’s streets and drainages are relatively cleaner than what they were a decade ago.
What seems to be ignored though is the fact that Kampala is not an island in a sea; it is literally surrounded by rapidly growing urban and semi-urban centres such as Kira, Nansana, Makindye Ssabagabo and Entebbe municipalities which have a combined population of more than one million people and are under the jurisdiction of Wakiso district. These communities, albeit in close proximity to Kampala city, do not benefit from the KCCA’s well organised ISWM project, and yet as more people settle in these areas, it is a no brainer that the waste generated will increase. Parts of towns like Kireka and Bweyogerere, which I for one once thought were part of Kampala are characterised by littered drainages and illegal dumpsites.
During my interactions with a local council one (LC1) chairperson in Kireka, I discovered that some LC1 leaders in these communities make every effort, despite a meagre financial backing to sensitize the residents about proper garbage storage and disposal as well as going the extra mile to encourage the residents to have a central garbage collection point from which it is hoped that division/municipal leaders will make the effort to have the garbage removed regularly, which is not the case, if the growing garbage dump along the railway line is anything to go by.
The municipal staff I spoke to at the division/municipal offices assert that by law, it is the responsibility of the waste generator to ensure that domestic garbage is efficiently stored and correctly disposed of either in household compost pits or by soliciting the services of a private waste vendor/collector.
The question remains, are the residents aware of this law, are they sensitised about this and who sensitises them? This is also an interesting perspective considering that majority of the residents in these communities feel that it is a service that should be provided freely by the government.
This is where the private garbage collection company comes in, an opportunity for them to fill that gap left by an unclear position on whose role it is to ensure the residential community is clean — as long as it makes business sense. The 2017 Uganda National Household Survey reveals that while residents in urban centres mainly burn their garbage (22%), a good number use the services of private garbage collection companies (20%). The private service provider, by law need only secure an operational permit (to certify technical capability of the company) from the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and a trading license from the municipality/city authority to operate. NEMA has licensed over 60 waste management companies (I will focus on domestic waste here) to operate in different parts of the country, yet the waste management challenge still remains.
Garbage collection costs the homeowner between Ugx 8,000 ($2) per month — for low income households and an average of Ugx 30,000 ($7) per month — for middle income to high income households, but the fee depends on the amount of garbage collected, the frequency of collection and the provision of garbage bags and bins/drums. However, the private garbage collector’s daily operations are not without challenges, some of the company owners I spoke to highlighted the following;
- The incessant and unbridled operations of unlicensed waste collection companies and individuals not attached to any company who wrongly dump garbage by the roadside and into drainages and therefore charge ridiculously lower fees which gives them a competitive advantage over the legitimate companies. And because clients are only concerned with the removal of garbage from their homes, where and how it’s disposed by these illegal waste collectors does not matter. A popular phrase used in this regard is “Not In My Backyard, NIMBY”, meaning that as long as garbage leaves their compounds, they’re not concerned about where the individual or unlicensed company disposes of it.
2. Delayed payments by clients stretching from 60–90 days post garbage collection which impedes the company’s ability to maintain a certain standard of operations.
“Running a garbage collection company is a very capital intensive and operationally expensive venture. One has to consider that we incur substantial fuel, human resource, equipment (bags and bins) as well as health and safety costs in our daily operations. Therefore payment delays by clients limits our ability to provide the services while maintaining the highest service delivery standard, said one company director”
3. The waste management industry also grossly lacks trained personnel for field work activities, which means that legitimate companies need to invest a lot in training their labour force to safely handle garbage collection.
“Most people think that it is simply about hiring any unemployed person who is willing to work in the sector and yet we actually invest in training these people on safe and correct handling of garbage for their own good and the good of the community”.
4. Lack of public awareness and sensitization about the various roles/responsibilities of all the stakeholders involved in solid waste management as well as the various laws, by-laws and ordinances concerning garbage collection and disposal. The aim of sensitization is to educate the public about the simple, effective and health ways of storing and disposing garbage/waste products, making public participation is a key component of an effective solid waste management program.
One service provider noted that while KCCA is making an effort to sensitize the public, the public still doesn’t know how to handle garbage in terms of correct storage and disposal. People still dump garbage along the streets, misuse and steal street skips/litter bins and combine all forms of garbage together, for instance, people put bricks into their garbage yet the company uses compactor trucks for collection.
One provider also decried the lack of sensitization to the public about the existing public private partnership between KCCA and some private waste collection companies to manage municipal waste in selected divisions of Kampala.
However, another private service provider thinks otherwise.
“There is a misconception among the residents of Kampala that garbage collection is only to be done by three companies (Homeklin, Nabugabo updeal and Consortium waste) who are under contract with KCCA, yet this isn’t the case as it only applies to municipal waste in specific locations, which would have otherwise been collected by KCCA. It cannot be the case otherwise KCCA wouldn’t grant licenses to all these other waste management companies. In fact, these companies do not have the capacity to handle garbage collection for the entire Kampala city”
5. All the service providers’ highlighted what I will call political misdirection by the individuals running for election/re-election to a political office in the community as a major challenge. From a survey Pollicy recently conducted to assess waste management practices among residents in selected communities, we discovered that citizens feel that garbage collection is a service that should be provided freely by the government. This is compounded by politicians, who, when running for re-election promise the electorates that household and community garbage will be collected by the municipality, which however, isn’t the case according to the Local Governments (Kampala City Council) (Solid Waste Management) Ordinance.
Many challenges were highlighted by the service providers but these five stood out, with the lack of public sensitization being the most significant. The WeSpeak feedback platform, a civic engagement platform being designed by Pollicy, would ably address many of the challenges highlighted. It will allow citizens to quickly find licensed service providers for garbage collection and pit emptying, and importantly it will integrate a sensitization and awareness creation component about the issues raised by the private garbage collection companies. It will also allow citizens to report incidents of illegal dumping. We at Pollicy hypothesize that this platform will bring efficiency into the waste management sector.
The private garbage collection companies expressed their confidence in the Wespeak platform because client feedback was highlighted as an important factor in the service industry, no matter the sector one operates. All the companies I spoke to value client comments, complains and suggestions which they mainly got in person and through phone calls from the clients and while some of the companies have a computerised data base to store this feedback, majority store this information in hard copy books. This feedback, they said, guides planning and decision making for improved service delivery, which is what we hope to achieve with the Wespeak civic engagement platform.
Written by Patricia Navvuga, Program Manager at Pollicy
