The Arua City Council, together with Lush Environment Conservation Organisation (LECO), has launched a marathon to raise funds to buy garbage skips as one of the strategies to manage waste disposal in the city.

The marathon slated for January 14, 2023, which is themed: Bin to Win, is expected to raise funds to secure at least 300 garbage skips to be distributed across the city.

Currently, residents dump garbage anyhow on the streets due to a lack of garbage skips.

 LECO project director Leah Victoria Nabukeera, while highlighting the need for the marathon during a press briefing at Arua City Hall on Friday, December 16, 2022, said garbage can be a danger to human beings.

The launch of Charity Marathon for waste management in Arua City

Nabukeera said the idea was born after Arua municipality (now city), which in 2015 was declared the second cleanest urban centre in Africa, was named the filthiest regional city in the country recently.

“Most of the garbage skips in the city were those procured when Arua was still a municipality and the majority of them are now dilapidated and disposed of necessitating the need to procure others," Nabukeera said.

LECO chief executive officer Eunice Aleni and Miss Eco Tourism World Northern Uganda 2022 say the marathon is to create awareness about waste management in the city.

According to her, the marathon will be a full-day event where the public, especially the youth will be sensitised on the need to have a clean city.

Aleni said the project will be rolled out to schools to have the issues of awareness creation on garbage management addressed at lower primary levels.

Vandalism of skips

Arua city health inspector Godfrey Apangu said the council has been overwhelmed by garbage collection and vandalism of the available bins has been a challenge.

Apangu said, in the past, there were initiatives such as Keeping Arua Clean under the leadership of former mayor Charles Asiki where a specific day was set aside to clean the city.

“Budgetary allocations for waste management in developing countries are meagre," Apangu said.

According to Khadija Aliru, the female councillor representing persons with disability, the initiative to have more garbage skips is timely and needs to be embraced.

Aliru, who is also the chairperson finance, planning and administration committee, said the marathon should be annual for it to have a lasting impact on the cleanliness of the city.

She called for continued partnership so as to improve sanitation in the city.

Apangu said the Arua central division alone generates between 150-200 tonnes of garbage daily.