The Ministry of Local Government in Uganda has embarked on the move to develop a new solid waste management policy, aiming to address the country’s waste management challenges, particularly in urban areas.
This initiative is being undertaken in collaboration with other stakeholders, including the Ministry of Lands, KCCA, and various partners that are interested in waste as a resource.
The policy development follows a tragedy at the Kiteezi landfill, and it’s intended to move waste management from being solely an expenditure item to being seen as a source of raw materials for various industries.
During the validation engagement on Thursday, 7th August in Entebbe, Raphael Magyezi, the Minister of local government highlighted that while government agencies and local authorities play vital roles in enforcement and infrastructure, lasting change will only come if citizens embrace practical habits such as separating waste at the household level, avoiding littering, and making recycling part of everyday life.
In addition, he revealed that the policy proposes to turn the waste into a resource, so that it’s not a burden to the local governments.
“It is an opportunity for the local governments, because whatever waste you think about, either can be recycled into byproducts for the industries, it can be turned into fertiliser, manure, or any other valuable resource. The technical teams have done their work, they have done benchmarking, they have done research. So it’s time for us at the policy level now to re-examine this and therefore present it,” he said.
The Minister further highlighted that the time has come to make sure that nobody dies out of negligence in terms of mounting waste, and then looking at the polythene bags, as waste when they can be recycled into something useful, adding, “This is the way we are going in terms of the new policy document.”
Magyezi also noted that the government can design policies, but without public cooperation, those policies cannot succeed, hence urging Ugandans not to wait passively for government services but to actively participate in managing waste.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government, Ben Kumumanya emphasised that it’s a good opportunity to try out to use the whole of government approach with the Minister of Local Government in the lead to develop a waste management policy which will help to deal with the issues of waste and take them to a better level.
“We are implementing the whole of government approach, and we are shifting from sectoral approaches, sectoral policies, to harmonised policy initiation and policy development,” he noted.
Kumumanya further explained that all the local governments have the Department of Natural Resources Management, which still needs environmental protection, but what was lacking was a very strong, comprehensively done policy that has been built from submissions by all the stakeholders.
“I want to inform the public that with this policy in place, the next thing will be enforcement. And according to the findings of the regulatory impact assessment, one of the four areas identified was monitoring and evaluation. So, when you do a monitoring evaluation, you get information, and then you know how best to do enforcement,” the permanent secretary said.
Charles Magumba, the Commissioner in charge of Urban Administration at the Ministry of Local Government confirmed that the draft policy has been clicked for presentation to cabinet, saying, “We have validated this draft policy at the regional UAU meetings. We have prepared a letter to the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, requesting for Certificate of financial application. We have already drafted the cabinet memo, and the Minister’s presentation to cabinet.”
The final draft of the National Waste Management Policy is expected to be submitted to Cabinet for approval in the coming weeks.
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