By Sadique Bamwita
Kampala
Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has secured Shs.25 billion to strengthen solid waste management within the city. KCCA’s Executive Director, Hajat Sharifah Buzeki says the funds will greatly help to expand garbage collection, acquire new trucks and establish facilities for recovering recyclable materials.
Hajat Sharifah Buzeki who appeared before the Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) chaired by Muwada Nkunyingi, informed the commission that the funding was secured through a joint effort with the Ministry of Finance to address rampant challenges in the management of waste across Kampala.
Buzeki explained to the commission that the investment is already being channelled into increasing the city’s waste collection capacity, including the deployment of private contractors and development of waste recovery infrastructure.
Hajat Buzeki told the commission that KCCA has licensed nine private waste collection contractors, pushing the city’s daily waste collection capacity to more than 2,100 tonnes across Kampala’s divisions.
The expansion of solid waste management is aimed at addressing long-standing concerns over garbage accumulation in parts of the city . However, KCCA with it’s weekly Weyonje sanitation challenge has to improve collection, transportation and disposal of waste amidst the continued growth of Kampala’s population and commercial activity.
Similarly, Hajat Buzeki noted that the Shs.25 billion funding will also support the development of Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs), which are intended to improve the sorting and recovery of recyclable materials from collected waste.
Among the projects being developed is a Material Recovery Facility at Buyala, which KCCA says will form part of efforts to shift Kampala towards a more organised and sustainable waste management system.
Besides treating all collected waste as material for final disposal, recovery facilities allow waste to be sorted so that recyclable and reusable materials can be separated, reducing the volume ultimately sent to disposal sites.
In related news, the parliamentary committee is currently scrutinising several aspects of KCCA’s operations, including unutilised funds, land assets, procurement and solid waste management.
Therefore, the authority’s appearance before the commission provides Parliament with an opportunity to interrogate how public funds allocated to the city authority have been utilised and whether KCCA’s investments are translating into improved service delivery. On this note, the Shs.25 billion allocation therefore comes at a critical time when the authority is faced with growing demands to overhaul Kampala’s waste management system.
With the authority now reporting a collection capacity exceeding 2,100 tonnes per day, the focus is likely to shift from simply increasing collection to ensuring that waste is efficiently transported, properly processed and sustainably disposed of.
