Masaka Municipality has acquired a 20 acre piece of land at Bulando village for waste disposal following repeated demonstrations against poor garbage disposal. Masaka town clerk Johnson Baryatuma Munono says the land cost UGX 120m generated from trading licenses, tenders and market fees. He further revealed that the municipality will construct a garbage recycling plant on the land with the aid of a UGX 480m grant from World Bank .
Masaka Municipality authorities have for years been grappling with the challenge problem of waste management. Mayor Godfrey Kayemba Afaayo said that the move is aiming at improving on poor waste management tendencies which have dogged the town. There have been several demonstrations against the authorities' failure to collect and dispose of garbage in a timely manner. The latest such demonstration was led by a one Tony Ssempiija, a Kyabakuza parish councilor.
Many Masaka town residents have complained that the uncollected garbage has affected not only their health but also their livelihoods too. Junior Mukooza Kizito, the owner of Mukopix photo studio located on Elgin Street near one of the garbage dumping sites in Masaka town, said that before the new garbage collection routine was enforced, he had lost many customers because of the toxic smell of garbage dumped near his photo studio.
He welcomed the new change and wants the municipal authorities to further enforce cleanliness in the town by levying high fines on anyone found littering public areas. Ismael Ssekamate, a poultry trader along Elgin Road, said that they lived in fear for their health because of their promixity garbage. Ssekamate welcomed the new plan for waste management saying that this will save the lives of people who work along Elgin Street from deadly diseases like cholera, Ebola and dysentery among other diseases which originate from poor waste management.
The town clerk said that once the recycling plant was completed, it would provide employment to more than 200 youth in the area. The land for the proposed recycling plant is about 2 kilometers from Masaka town at Bulando village, Buwunga sub county in Masaka district.
