Jinja City Council has announced plans to enact by-laws aimed at punishing public littering in an effort to improve sanitation, protect road infrastructure, and reduce frequent flooding in the city.
The proposed laws will target individuals who dispose of rubbish irresponsibly, including those who litter streets with plastic bottles, polythene bags (kaveera) and other waste onto the streets of Jinja.
City authorities said the absence of clear and enforceable anti-littering laws has contributed significantly to poor waste management, especially along major roads, taxi parks and the entire city areas.
The proposed laws are intended to promote responsible waste disposal, hold offenders accountable, and encourage residents and visitors to keep Jinja City clean.
Ms Isabella Ndahra, the Jinja deputy city clerk, told Daily Monitor last week the council is yet to determine how much and who gets the kind of charge (fine) once caught littering the environment.
She explained that the drainage constructed under the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) programme usually get clogged and or blocked due to careless dumping of solid waste.
‘As a result, several road sections experience flooding whenever it rains, causing inconvenience to road users, damage to infrastructure, and increased health risks to residents,’ she said.
The situation is worsened in areas where drainage covers have been broken or removed. As a result, some shopkeepers and roadside food vendors reportedly misuse the open drains by turning them into rubbish pits.
Ms Ndahura explained that the by-laws are going to be sustainable by use of scouts, who will be on the streets, as well as the public who will cause the arrest of anybody seen throwing rubbish openly in a public place.
City leaders have said this behaviour not only pollutes the environment but also undermines investments made in urban development.
Ms Prossy Nakitto, the principal health officer of Jinja City, said before the new laws are enacted and enforced, the city council has introduced a compulsory citywide cleaning exercise. It targets all residents and people working in Jinja.
The exercise will be conducted on the last week of every month, starting from 6am to about 9am.
Meanwhile, Ms Victoria Kakaire, the principal environment officer of Jinja City, noted that some residents are still living in condemned buildings that lack basic sanitation facilities such as toilets.
She said this situation has contributed to cases of open defecation in some corridors of Jinja City streets.
In some parts of the city, several shops are operating without dustbins for proper garbage disposal, while a number of buildings have become sites of frequent sewage spillages.
As a result, strong and unpleasant odours of urine and human waste have become a constant presence in corridors and narrow passages between buildings, raising serious concerns about public health and sanitation.
Ms Kakaire said the city council plans to carry out inspections of buildings, particularly in the urban centres, to establish whether they have functional toilet facilities.
The Jinja City principal environment officer emphasised that property owners who fail to meet the required sanitation standards will be held accountable.
‘It has come to our notice that there is open defecation in some sections of the city corridors. People are disposing of human waste in polythene bags, which indicates that some buildings do not have functional toilets. The council will, therefore, conduct inspections to address this problem,’ Ms Kakaire said.
Mr Vin Lawrence Semaganda, the chairperson of Alinda Road Village, said Jinja City Council should take responsibility of unblocking the drainage systems and replacing the damaged manhole covers. He added that some drainage and manhole covers appear to be substandard, prompting public questions about their source and procurement.