Businessmen in Kyazanga town council in Lwengo district are protesting the appalling hygiene in the town council. They accuse the town council authorities of failing to dispose of garbage leaving it to accumulate on the roadside and various streets in the town council. They also claiming the rotten garbage has polluted the air in the town council.
Achilles Ssenyonga, chairperson Kyazanga Traders Association says the town council is very dirty, yet they promptly pay their taxes. He says town council authorities ordered them to buy dustbins for collecting garbage in their shops before it is transferred to waste containers which have now filled up. Ssenyonga says that because the containers have not been emptied for a very long time residents decided to dump waste along the road saying it is almost reaching people’s shops.
He says they are afraid of contracting dangerous infections as result of the flies from the skips and the dirty sewerage that flows into their kiosks and houses whenever it rains. Juma Kirumira, a butcher says that they have repeatedly reminded the town council authorities to help and remove the garbage in vain. He says town council authorities only disposed of garbage for two months leaving residents to suffer with the heavy stench.
Kirumuira explains that some residents have been collecting some garbage for use as manure in their gardens but they have failed to finish it. Stella Najuma, a roadside vender in Kyazanga town says they have failed to benefit from the revenue they have been paying to the town council. Najuma says that in addition to failing to dispose of garbage, the town council has a few garbage skips that they take long to empty.
This morning, a group of vendors took to the streets to protest the filth in the town council forcing George William Mutabazi, the Lwengo LC V chairman to intervene. Mutabazi pleaded with the furious vendors to cool down saying that they had allocated some money in the new financial year budget to procure a garbage dumping site, where the garbage would be converted into bio gas to general power.
He explained that local revenue generated from the town council was inadequate to fund the council budget and urged residents to embark on self help efforts to clean the town council. Mutabazi attributes the accumulation of garbage to the high population in the town council.
