Clean money from garbage
Aug 18, 2003
RESIDENTS of Namere village in Kawempe, Kampala have turned the catch phrase “garbage is wealth,’’ into reality, by making organic manure out of garbage and selling it for money.
By Gerald Tenywa
RESIDENTS of Namere village in Kawempe, Kampala have turned the catch phrase “garbage is wealth,’’ into reality, by making organic manure out of garbage and selling it for money.
The project, has created a source of income and employment for the villagers while ensuring a clean environment at Kalerwe market, located a stone’s throw away.
It has created a symbiotic relationship between Kalerwe, which generates vast amounts of garbage and Namere that makes use of it to produce manure. The organic manure is put in the gardens and the produce is sold in the markets of Kalerwe.
“We have been assisting the communities through awareness and skills on dangers of unclaimed waste and how to utilise it,’’ says Banada Nswa who heads the Uganda Environment Protection Forum (UEPF).
He says UEPF, which is a non-governmental organisation spearheaded the project because it considers waste as misplaced wealth. Nswa says that a strategy on waste management is needed to reverse the trend of leaving the future generations with a legacy of our waste.
He says the generators of waste look at garbage as the problem of Kampala City Council.
One of UEPF’s problems is the habit of heaping organic waste with non bio-degradable waste. Nswa says that this kind of waste is useless and that it has to be sorted if it is to be made into compost to be utilised by farmers.
Nswa and his team addressed this problem through one-year project funded by the Global Environment Facility administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). GEF, which focuses on climate change through sound waste management, gave UEPF $21,000, to set up a garbage separation project at St. Kizito Market, one of Kalerwe’s largest markets.
Besides, waste being a breeding ground for disease causing agents such as cholera and dysentery, unclaimed waste affect environment, says Nswa.
He says solid waste, which is either haphazardly dumped or burnt or left in landfill causes poisonous gases to be released into the atmosphere. The common gases including carbon-dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide which are are classified as green house gases, whose accumulation causes global warming and climate change.
Green house gases affect the Ozone layer widely described as a blanket screening the earth surface from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun.
Climate change due to poor waste management can bring about undesirable socio-economic and environmental effects, warns Nswa.
At Kizito Market, two garbage skips have been provided for the separation of garbage.
Nswa says five buying centres for polythene bags have been established within Kalerwe.
A kilogramme of polythene bags goes for sh200, and is then sold to a factory along Gayaza Road at sh300 per Kilogramme.
RESIDENTS of Namere village in Kawempe, Kampala have turned the catch phrase “garbage is wealth,’’ into reality, by making organic manure out of garbage and selling it for money.
The project, has created a source of income and employment for the villagers while ensuring a clean environment at Kalerwe market, located a stone’s throw away.
It has created a symbiotic relationship between Kalerwe, which generates vast amounts of garbage and Namere that makes use of it to produce manure. The organic manure is put in the gardens and the produce is sold in the markets of Kalerwe.
“We have been assisting the communities through awareness and skills on dangers of unclaimed waste and how to utilise it,’’ says Banada Nswa who heads the Uganda Environment Protection Forum (UEPF).
He says UEPF, which is a non-governmental organisation spearheaded the project because it considers waste as misplaced wealth. Nswa says that a strategy on waste management is needed to reverse the trend of leaving the future generations with a legacy of our waste.
He says the generators of waste look at garbage as the problem of Kampala City Council.
One of UEPF’s problems is the habit of heaping organic waste with non bio-degradable waste. Nswa says that this kind of waste is useless and that it has to be sorted if it is to be made into compost to be utilised by farmers.
Nswa and his team addressed this problem through one-year project funded by the Global Environment Facility administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). GEF, which focuses on climate change through sound waste management, gave UEPF $21,000, to set up a garbage separation project at St. Kizito Market, one of Kalerwe’s largest markets.
Besides, waste being a breeding ground for disease causing agents such as cholera and dysentery, unclaimed waste affect environment, says Nswa.
He says solid waste, which is either haphazardly dumped or burnt or left in landfill causes poisonous gases to be released into the atmosphere. The common gases including carbon-dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide which are are classified as green house gases, whose accumulation causes global warming and climate change.
Green house gases affect the Ozone layer widely described as a blanket screening the earth surface from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun.
Climate change due to poor waste management can bring about undesirable socio-economic and environmental effects, warns Nswa.
At Kizito Market, two garbage skips have been provided for the separation of garbage.
Nswa says five buying centres for polythene bags have been established within Kalerwe.
A kilogramme of polythene bags goes for sh200, and is then sold to a factory along Gayaza Road at sh300 per Kilogramme.