Prime Minister wants Garbage law at household level to manage waste

By: Ismael Kasooha

KAMPALA

The Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Nabbanja Robinah has tasked the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Executive Director Sharifah Buzeki in collaboration with the Solicitor General to formulate a law that will help the country to manage garbage right from household level.

The Premier is proposing that each household should have skips indicating organic, plastics, glass and metal so that it is easier for the garbage collectors to sort and manage it very well.

Nabbanja was on Thursday meeting a delegation from the United Arab Emirates in the State of Sharjah at her office in Kampala as a follow up of her visit to Dubai recently.

The delegation was led by Dr. Puneet Sarna, the Senior Director Operational Beeah Group that manages garbage in Saljah.

Uganda has been grappling with the challenge of garbage management in all the 10 cities in the country due to the nature of the waste which is organic.

“We want to come up with a permanent solution to garbage management in the country but starting with Kampala. The garbage shall be turned into fertilizers and other products instead of having garbage as a challenge,” said Nabbanja.

“Our garbage is mainly organic because of the food we eat and so it is easy to manage when we get partners like BEEAH who will turn it into fertilizers for our gardens,” said Nabbanja.

Nabbanja said that during her working visit to Limin in Italy, she discovered that households have the responsibility of sorting garbage and failure to do so are liable to a fine.

“It is simple when the law comes in place and you fail to comply you will be penalized,” said Nabbanja.

For the case of Italy, the primary law governing garbage management is the “Environmental Code” (Decreto Legislativo 152/2006), which outlines the fundamental principles and requirements for waste management activities, including strict regulations on landfilling, emphasis on recycling, and penalties for illegal dumping, aiming to protect the environment and public health; this law also establishes the “polluter pays” principle and prioritizes waste prevention, reuse, and recycling over disposal.

Nabbanja said that this is the way to go so that those managing garbage and tasked KCCA to immediately formulate the law.

The Premier expressed her optimism that now Uganda has gotten the rightful partners to manage garbage.

The Executive Director of KCCA, Hajjat Sharifah Buzeki said that so far the engagements held clearly show that the waste management challenge shall be addressed.

“We have had several engagements and there is hope that when the project kicks off the challenge of garbage will be addressed once and for all,” said Buzeki.

Robert Mukiza, the Director General, Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) said that they have held several engagements with the visiting delegation in regard to other investment opportunities in the country.

Dr. Puneet Sarna, the Senior Director Operational from Beeah Group said that they have had good engagements with stakeholders and will brief the directors back home as soon as possible.

The BEEAH Group is a public-private partnership that works to create a sustainable future by developing and implementing innovative technologies and solutions.

In the field of waste management, BEEAH offers waste collection, tracking, sorting, and street cleaning services. They also have a metal recycling center that shreds old cars and other metal scrap.

END