World Habitat Day

Today Monday 1" October 2018, Uganda joins the rest of the World to commemorate World Habitat Day. This is the day when countries and communities world over reflect on the state of the human settlements and the basic human right to adequate shelter. 

lt is also a reminder totheworld ofitscollective responsibility to the future of the human habitat. All stakeholders in the housing sector are reminded to pause, reflect and review their performance in the past year, recommit themselves and martial resources to improve the state of their human settlement and housing conditions over the next year. 

Theme 

The theme for this year's World Habitat Day is "Municipal Solid Waste Management" with a slogan "Waste Wise Cities". 

Relevancy 

The importance of this theme in a fast urbanizing country like Uganda cannot be overemphasized. In a rapidly urbanizing environment, there is serious need to address the challenge of Municipal Solid Waste Management. This year's theme provides an opportunity for Municipalities, Town councils, upcoming urban areas and other Stakeholders to raise awareness that Municipal Solid Waste is a global challenge that all of us need to collectively address. There is thus need to facilitate policy dialogue, form partnerships, encourage innovative approaches to municipal solid waste management including raising awareness and mobilizing resources to address the challenge.

The theme for this year comes at a timely moment for all those involved in the planning, development process and management of urban centers to put Solid Waste Management at the centre of urban development. Emphasis is placed on creating awareness for behavioral change, promoting innovative approaches such as separation of waste at source, re-use, recycling, and recovery of energy and compost from organic waste. 

The Venue 

This year's World Habitat Day international celebrations will be marked in Kenya. While at the National level the celebrations are to be marked at Liberation Square in Masaka Municipality, Masaka District.  The activities to be undertaken to mark the day include a public rally at Masaka Liberation Square where all members of the Public are invited to attend. Furthermore, a Keep Masaka Clean campaign has been launched to kick start the process of cleaning Masaka Municipality on a monthly basis as a collective responsibility of all the citizens of Masaka. 

A proper municipal solid waste management system will be launched in Schools in Masaka to instill the right values among children as a strategy to enhance behaviour change to inculcate the discipline of waste prevention, separation, reuse, recycling, and recovery to minimize volume of waste that is disposed of at the dumpsite.

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