Residents feast near stinking Lubigi Channel at Kalerwe

Mar 20, 2015

The stench knocks you from afar. Interestingly, people who reside or operate small businesses along the Kalerwe section of the Lubigi Channel in Kampala''s Kawempe Division seem oblivious of that foul smell.


By Miria Sidney
 
The stench knocks you from afar. Interestingly, people who reside or operate small businesses along the Kalerwe section of the Lubigi Channel in Kampala's Kawempe Division seem oblivious of that foul smell. They prepare and eat their meals near the mucky water not bothered at all.
 
Sarah Nalongo, a food vendor behind a bush stop shed on the Northern Bypass at Kibe Zone says, "I think we have become accustomed to the stench because none of my customers has ever complained to me about it." She has just boiled a kettle of water and is ready to serve tea to another of her customers.
 
Blood gone bad
Farther upstream near the abattoir known as Lufula behind Kalerwe Market, the stench gets more unbearable. Some of the blood and waste matter discharged from the abattoir ends up in tributaries which flow into Lubigi Channel.
 
It gets even worse when these tributaries become clogged with plastic bottles and polythene bags. This not only impedes the flow of the stream but also allows the blood to decompose hence the stench. 
 
For Siriri Mujulizi, a casual labourer who carts around goods on a wheel barrow, he wonders what this fuss about an unpleasant smell is all about as he enjoys his breakfast of katogo (matooke, beef, greens and avocado). 

 
According to Mujulizi, the clogged stream behind his work station was last  worked on more than four months ago. "We are now immune to the smell, but it would be good if Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) regularly unclogs the drainage channels," he says with a sense of resignation.
 
Flying toilets
Apparently, there is more to the stench than just blood gone bad and the stagnant water. It is a concept that has been perfected in slums around Kampala known as 'flying toilets'. In Kibe Zone where pit latrines are hard to come by, some residents ease themselves in polythene bags in the privacy of their bedsitters then hurl the waste like a slingshot into the tributary channels which drain into Lubigi.

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Nalongo speaks disapprovingly of the practice but says regular dredging would help ease their troubles. Her sentiments are re-echoed by Abdu Iga, another resident of Kibe Zone. He however adds that the stagnant water is fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes. "Can you imagine that these mosquitoes harass us even during the day?" he says.
 
KCCA intervenes
According to Francis Munu, a KCCA official from the engineering department the city authority has already began dredging the Lubigi Channel and the tributaries which feed into it. Munu says in addition to the plastic bottles and polythene bags, the water flow is impeded by silt and growth of weeds in the channel. 

 
"As KCCA dredges the channel, the people need to be sensitized not to dispose their garbage into the channel," he says
 
Iga thinks the intervention has come in a little too late after countless mosquito bites and months of a foul smell in the area, but nevertheless applauds KCCA for the effort.
 

 

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