Poor waste disposal has remained a global threat to public health. In Uganda, Ms Rachael Vivian Akena’s engagement with community leaders and residents of Bruno Zone in Kkonge village, Makindye Division, Kampala District re-affirms the dangers of poor waste management. Ms. Akena from Uganda Christian University underscores the need to embrace waste recycling.
“The dumped waste contained a significant volume of used condoms. This presented a threat to public health as children kept on picking the dumped used condoms. The children would use them as balloons. They would fill the used condoms with water. The children would then drink the water from the used condoms, which would expose them to possible infections.”
The poor waste disposal in the community also attracted stray dogs, who in the search for food, scatter the waste in people’s compounds and drainage channels.
Faced with such health challenges, Akena’s field attachment focused on sensitizing the community about waste management methods and practices for a better environment. “Sensitising the masses is the best strategy. Proper disposal of waste plays a great role in the prevention of the spread of diseases. Waste recycling provides the best solution,” she remarked.
Interacting with the community leaders, Akena pointed out that some waste could be transformed into useful products. “People in the community have to be informed about how to recycle some waste into useful products and should be taught how to separate the garbage of different kinds. People in the community who have plantations can use composing waste as manure in their gardens, and some waste like polythene bags can be burned, while plastics can be recycled to reduce on the poor disposal of garbage. The remaining garbage can be collected in sacks and taken to garbage-collecting trucks. This reduces the burden of disposing off garbage,” Akena advised.
For sustainability of this One Health approach, Akena identified and educated a section of the youth to be the community sanitation champions who would alert the local authority in case of rubbish accumulation.
Ms. Sarah Nakyanzi, a member of the Village Health Team (VTH) and the environment committee at the local council, mentioned the challenge of people constructing pit latrines on top of the trenches and releasing the waste into the trenches when it rains, which leads to infections.
“We are glad that this student has raised her voice against poor waste disposal. This will help to change the acts of some community members. We hope to maintain this good cause in our community and we shall keep on with this initiative of sensitizing the community and engaging it in the general cleaning even when the student has gone.” Sarah Nakyanzi remarked.
Presented with an opportunity to serve the community with Racheal Akena during her field attachment, Hope Annet Namaganda, a student of Lira University and a youth leader at Kkonge Village observed that if they were to impact the community, they had to involve the people and share knowledge on proper disposal of garbage and conservation of the environment. She said, “The program will empower and motivate the people to see the relevance of proper waste disposal and sanitation at large and make this a daily routine in order to improve their health.” For the skills and experience attained during the community attachment, Racheal Akena commended the One Health Institute at Makerere University under AFROHUN for providing her with an opportunity to acquire, sharpen and implement various skills including planning, communication and management skills as well as building her confidence to approach the local leaders with the proposed project, to approaching individuals in the community. She thanked Mr. Nicholas Mugabi for the great supervision he provided to her