THE COLLAPSE OF KITEEZI LANDFILL,A THREAT THAT WAS FOR SO LONG IGNORED UNTIL IT HAPPENED; NOW, A SERIOUS WAKEUP CALL.

“A deteriorating urban environment is the enemy of sustainable development. Protecting the environment is not an alternative to economic growth - it is a precondition of efficient economic development” (UN 1992:25).

For as long as there is human activity, that consumes resources, there will always be waste, as a result.

Today’s urban centres are characterized by intense human activity like industrialization, construction, mining, production, manufacturing; etc., that consume a great deal of resources like energy, water, food and raw materials; generating large quantities of waste as a result.

In Kampala City; like other urban centres in Uganda, and in most other developing countries, the important service of waste management is based on the local government's centralized collection, transportation and disposal strategy.

Currently, however, this approach has proved to be inefficient due to the heavy financial requirements involved.

The increase in urban, economic and industrial activities; as well as the resultant population growth, have led to an increase in the quantity of solid waste generated.

In Uganda, the rapid and often unauthorized growth of the urban areas has in many cases outpaced the ability of the urban authorities to provide adequate waste collection facilities and services; among other necessary services.

Poor waste management exacerbates many of the environmental hazards associated with urban centres; such as fires, pests and disease vectors which create human health problems.

With the exponential rates of development and urbanization in today’s cities across the developing world, including Kampala, municipal waste generation in the city has certainly overwhelmed the available management systems.

As a result, crude waste management practices like open damping and uncontrolled burning have thrived.

The gazetted damping sites are full; posing a threat to life, the environment and development.

There is increased global warming from the release of Greenhouse gasses from poorly managed waste, openly dumped waste has become a thriving ground for disease-causing organisms and vectors; air, water and land pollution.

There arises pressure on land for landfills and damping sites; the same land that would be used for development.

The existing waste management measures have turned out to be ineffective, unsustainable and very expensive to the government.

All city dwellers are affected, but those confined in slums are the most affected since they cannot easily afford waste collection services. The slums are also not very accessible due to the poor road network and poorly planned settlement patterns.

Uncontrolled disposal by burning and dumping adds to atmospheric and hydrologic pollution loads, clogs waterways and increases the danger of flooding. This has been experienced in parts of Kampala, such as Bwaise, Kisenyi, Katwe, and Kalerwe.

The existing waste management systems themselves are ineffective, and unsustainable and have instead turned out to be a health and environmental hazard; a case in point is the government landfill at Kiteezi; which unfortunately tragically collapsed early morning, yesterday..

The imminent collapse of the landfill, due to the loss of structural integrity, worsened by the already appalling and overwhelmed solid waste management systems by the city authorities, even exacerbates the environmental, health, social and economic effects of improper and ineffective waste management in the country’s urban centres.

In a similar incident in March 2017, the Koshe landfill, the only landfill in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, that had been filled beyond capacity, collapsed, killing at least 115 people.

This, to the Ethiopian authorities, was a serious wake-up call, a call that shouted aloud, the need to seek better and more effective alternatives of managing municipal waste.

This birthed the Reppie waste-to-energy plant, located on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Africa's first waste incineration project.?

The plant began operations in August 2018 and was developed by Cambridge Industries Ltd.

Like other similar plants, in Europe, Combined Heat and Power (CHP) waste-to-energy plants convert solid waste to energy, through controlled incineration.

Solid waste, most of which is combustible, is burned under controlled conditions in a furnace called an incinerator, greatly reducing its volume.

The resultant toxic gaseous products are detoxified and immobilized using various chemical or physical methods, or converted to valuable commercial chemical products.

Moreover, the heat generated in the combustion process is converted to electricity; part of which runs the plant and the excess is incorporated into the national or regional grid systems.

The final residual products are used for road construction and as fertilizers.

Waste incineration therefore is not only an effective, self-sustaining mechanism of solid waste management but is also a potential source of electricity and commercial/industrial chemicals.

As opposed to the ineffective and non-sustainable damping sites, CHPs are the most likely efficient remedy, as opposed to dumping or use of landfills, against municipal waste in Africa’s and other developing cities in the world for the following reasons:

????? Reduced pressure on land meant for landfills.

????? Reduced pollution of land, air and water by waste.

????? Reduced disease spread and Improved sanitation.

????? Electricity generation.

????? Production of commercial chemicals.

????? Proper and effective solid waste management.

????? Creation of Smart Cities.

????? Job creation.

From the above, CHPs can be good accelerators for the achievement of sustainable development in developing countries.

Well, waste incineration has drawn some criticism, especially from some European Union Countries, as it allegedly not only exacerbates global warming and its challenges due to fumes released from the burning process; but it also does not incorporate the aspect of circularity because it instead burns out resources out of the cycle.

Other lawmakers and political heads from the same EU countries are rightly pushing for the adoption of the right waste management hierarchy of Waste Reduction/ Prevention, Waste Reuse, Waste Recycling and Waste disposal; in that order.

However, for countries like Uganda, which are already choking with municipal waste, it would be prudent to preferentially seek an option that offers an immediate and instant solution to the problem of municipal waste.

Additionally, better research can be done to design more environmentally friendly CHPs, to avert their reported negative effects on the environment.

As it stands, controlled solid waste incineration, with electricity generation in CHPs; as opposed to landfills/damping sites, can be the immediate solution that Uganda and other developing countries faced with the same challenge of managing municipal waste can adopt, to arrest the situation; and not only save the environment but most importantly prevent/avoid loss of lives in the near or far future as it has happened. L

With CHPs having been adopted elsewhere in the world, like Germany, France, China and Ethiopia in Africa; etc., with appreciable feasibility and effectiveness, then, Uganda too could borrow the same leaf, in her quest to manage solid waste in her urban centres.

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