KCCA Waste Dilema Worsens Following Kiteezi Tragedy

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA)’s waste disposal dilemma following the Kiteezi tragedy has worsened as Entebbe plays hard ball.

This follows a directive by the Entebbe Municipality Mayor Fabrice Rulinda stopping the Authority from utilizing the Nkumba Dumping Site.On Saturday morning, a section of garbage in the Kiteezi landfill gave way, burying houses and other property. By press time, over 34 bodies had been recovered from the debris.

Last week, KCCA got a lease of hope after an engagement between Lord Mayor Erias and Katabi Town Councillors gave them the green light to use Nkumba. However, the meeting gave KCCA only four days as they looked for a permanent solution for Kiteezi. With the four days elapsing on Monday, Fabrice Rulinda maintained his stance against KCCA’s use of Nkumba.

Rulinda cautioned that Nkumba is not built to handle the large tonnes of waste that KCCA handles per day. He explained that the Nkumba landfill can only handle 150 metric tonnes of garbage, which is a meager contrast in comparison to Kampala’s 2,500 metric tonnes per day.

“Like we said, we made our resolution of four days which expired, and as it is, we are not shifting on that position. As of today, we are going to stop trucks from dumping garbage in Entebbe. We sympathize with the people in Kampala but we have nothing to do.” Fabrice Rulinda said.

Rulinda expressed concern that increasing the capacity of the landfill would exacerbate existing problems. He was particularly worried that the effects of an overfilled Nkumba landfill would potentially impact tourism, business, and other sectors. He noted that dumping sites attract birds, which could interfere with air traffic.

This, he said, is a crucial matter, seeing as Entebbe hosts Uganda’s only international airport. Additionally, Rulinda warned that if the garbage issue isn’t properly addressed, airlines might even withdraw from Entebbe.