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To get a sense of the solid waste disposal problem that Uganda is currently grappling with, a trip to the landfill in Jinja that is enveloped by, among others, Masese Co Education Primary School, Jinja Ophthalmic Clinic Officers Training School and Kampala University – Jinja Campus, is instructive.

“All sorts of items like glasses, foetuses, diapers, among others, are dumped near our doorstep,” Eunice Akwende, who stays a stone’s throw from the landfill, revealed, adding”: “The stench and emissions from decomposing garbage attract flies…the place is full and our children risk getting diseases like cholera.’’

It was not meant to be this way five months ago when a Shs1.5b garbage recycling plant was commissioned to much fanfare. Its trommel machine (komptech cribus 3800), residents were told, has the capacity to turn garbage into manure. To cap things up, the machine was also famed for its capacity to sieve up to 50 tonnes of waste every hour.

“Jinja City doesn’t have the funds to purchase fuel; we are waiting for funds from the European Union to facilitate the operationalisation of the machine,” Mr Ernest Nabihamba, the Jinja City senior environment officer, told Monitor.

Mr Nabihamba also disclosed that $15m (about Shs55.4b) is needed to invest in a biogas plant able to generate electricity from the garbage heaps being dumped at Masese landfill.

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