Dogs feast on bodies as a town cemetery runs out of space in Uganda

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.