Rubaga Division last evening turned into a beehive of sorts as KCCA Executive Director Sharifah Buzeki joined locals in a community clean up exercise.
Just like bees do their thing, Buzeki put aside all her honors and participated in practical work to guide locals on the aspect of cleanliness to achieve better health and a cleaner City.
The busiest area was Kabaawo Zone in Mutundwe Parish (Rubaga Division) where the boots-on-the-ground ED and her team spent much of their time guiding people on how to handle rubbish and also preserve the environment.
“It’s important we treat garbage as a time bomb. It becomes useful if we dump it responsibly. Garbage of different forms can be a source of income to some people but is can also be dangerous to all of us if we don’t dispose it off responsibly” ED Sharifah Buzeki told residents.
She said for example plastics are giving some people jobs because they can be reused. Buzeki said she’s privy to information that a kilo of plastics mainly bottles goes for not less than Shs45000 while other rotting rubbish can also be turned into fertilizers.
“Therefore, we must learn to separate rubbish between that which rots and that which doesn’t. There are people who buy those plastics. But if we just throw it anyone or mix it with rotting ones, this increases on the volume of garbage we dump at the dumping site. In the end, it reduces space” she said.
The Executive Director added that dumping garbage on the streets and drainage channels is hampering KCCA’s efforts to rid the city of floods and also maintain its ideal image of being the cleanest City; able to attract tourists both local and internationally.
“That garbage you throw on the streets ends up being swept away by running water and it blocks the drainage channels. There are also very unpatriotic Ugandans who dump garbage directly in the channels whenever it rains. This must stop and I urge everyone to be on the lookout for those who do it” she said.
Buzeki also urged the locals to ensure that they preserve nature. She said that climate change effects are already hitting the country and Kampala in particular, citing changes in weather patterns.
“Metrologists recently told us that the rain we received that day on March 26 was unprecedented. It was measured at 82mm. Under normal circumstances, this rain according to them was supposed to be for a whole week but we received in just 6hrs. Our drainage system couldn’t handle it. Worse still, some bad elements had thrown rubbish in the drainage channels and blocked them. This resulted into flooding but thank God, we managed to clear them and water didn’t last long” she said.
Buzeki called for respect of all trees and green pasture in the city as one way to beautify the city and also preserve the environment.
During the clean up exercise, Buzeki and team cleared drainage channels and other work. The community commended KCCA for it’s efforts to sensitize them on garbage collection and pledged to carry the message further.
