KAMPALA, Uganda
Locals in Luwero town council in Uganda have raised serious environmental and health concerns as the cemetery and dumpsite, purchased two decades ago, reached full capacity.
Following the fill-up,
officials have resorted to shallow burials, stacking bodies on top of each
other, or dumping them in a single pit at the 2.5-acre public cemetery located
in the Kalongo Zone which also works as a garbage dump for waste collected from
residents.
The cemetery on average
receives at least five unclaimed bodies each week, many retrieved from
accidents, murder scenes, and other incidents across the district according to
authorities. The situation has been further exacerbated by an influx of
Sudanese refugees, who are also buried in the same cemetery upon their death.
Simon Ssebale, a local
resident noted that dogs have been exhuming the bodies and feeding on the
remains. Doreen Zawedde, another resident, pointed out the heavy stench
emanating from the cemetery due to the poor burial practices employed by the
town council workers.
Irene Nambaasa, also a
resident, warned that the improper disposal of bodies poses a significant risk
of disease outbreaks to the community. The garbage dumpsite, located on the
same piece of land has also reached its full capacity.
With no space left, garbage is
now being dumped on roads or in residential compounds. Luwero district
councillor Robert Majanja Ssekubulwa voiced concerns about a potential cholera
outbreak as the rainy season approaches, fearing that overflowing garbage could
flood into residential areas.
He urged the town council to
relocate both the cemetery and the garbage dump to a new location to safeguard
residents' health. Luwero LC III chairperson Chris Johns Buwembo noted that the
district has allocated Shs 50 million in the 2024/25 financial year to purchase
alternative land for these purposes.
Buwembo also appealed to the
government for assistance in managing the town's daily garbage collection, as
the town council is currently overwhelmed.
"It's is full, you cannot
dump there now...if we keep pushing it and pushing, it can be of great problem
whereby it can cause the same like what happened in Kiteezi. So basically,
right now we're yearning for any help but basically from the government to find
a way of helping us in Luweero to see that we get at least a piece of land
where we can transfer the garbage. Two, to have the machines that can help us
in collecting the garbage here and there. We allocated Shs 100m to procure a
garbage truck which is also not sufficient. We also had to budget some Shs 50m
for land procurement, the process is starting but Shs 50m is not substantial
enough," said Buwembo.
This crisis follows a recent tragedy in Kampala at the Kiteezi garbage
landfill, where a collapse led to the deaths of at least 35 people and
displaced over 100 others.
As the Kampala City Council
Authority (KCCA) searches for alternative land for garbage disposal, numerous
town councils, municipalities, and cities across the country are also
struggling with waste management, raising fears of similar disasters.
No comments:
Post a Comment