Hoima West Division residents decry lack of garbage disposal strategy
Written by admin on January 11, 2023
Lack of garbage skips has made the lives of some residents of Kijogo and Kibiingo Cells in West Division, Hoima City unbearable.
The residents say they are forced to find alternative means of disposing of their garbage by paying commercial motorcycle riders commonly known as bodabodas so they can live in a healthy environment.
According to Mr Samson Kato, a chapati seller at Kibiingo trading centre, he pays Shs3,000 to a bodaboda rider per route to carry the garbage that collects at his working place after failing to get a dumping place.
He says he decided to do the work that should be done by the Division authorities to avoid being inconvenienced by the garbage and threatening the health of other residents.
Mr Kato wants the authorities to provide them with garbage skips to dump the refuse from where it will later be collected to Kibbati garbage dumping site.
“As a resident and businessman of Kibiingo, I find challenges in managing garbage because the Division authorities have not taken their responsibility of collecting it. When the garbage piles up, the Division authorities don’t come to collect it. This forces us to pay Shs9,000 to bodaboda riders per week so they can carry it away. This amount of money is too much to spend from a business. Let the Division authorities intervene and take away the garbage since there is a gazetted area for that. Even our landlords don’t want us to dump the garbage on their land and we are baffled,” he says.
Ms Tophace Kwegondeza, a landlady in Kibiingo Lower, wonders how the city council has failed to collect the garbage yet business people pay tax expecting its value to be reflected in better services.
Besides, she says commercial property owners do not have ample space for garbage dumping on their plots of land for their tenants, thus, calling for the authorities to schedule garbage collection truck routes to the area.
The West Division councillor for Kibiingo Ward, Mr George Kirya, admits the uncollected garbage that he attributes to the limited financial resource envelope in the Division.
He says upon realising that the garbage was piling up, he raised the matter on the floor of the council but he was advised that the residents devise alternative means of handling the matter like in digging pits given the insufficient funds.
However, the politician says the measure is not a lasting solution since some property owners do not have enough space for garbage pits.
He, therefore, calls upon the Division mayor, town clerk and the area legislator, Dr Joseph Ruyonga, to consider the matter thoroughly so the garbage can be collected to the dumping site at Kibbati.
Mr Kirya fears that the uncollected litter can result in a health risk.
Mr Robert Ruhiigwa Kyomuhendo, the West Division mayor, advises the electorate to dig up pits where to dump the garbage adding that since now it is a dry season, they can be burnt to create room for more as the authorities mobilise funds for the cause.
