‘My friend died in Kiteezi rubbish dump’

The 22 -year -old garbage mosque is fighting, Okoku Prince remembers the moment of his best friend in a massive waste landfill in the capital of Uganda, Kampala.

The ground collapse was killed in the emptying of last Kitzo 30 people, including his friend Sanya Kizia.

“I think some people are still under the garbage,” he says to BBC.

Many of them took out a living by washing and selling any ignored elements that they found and still have value – anything from hunting networks to plastic bottles, glass tractors and the components of old electronic devices.

The blame was broke out after the deadly collapse, as the Kampala City Council and the central government accused each other of neglect, while some of the dead are still suffering from a ton of garbage without the dignity of burial.

When government tractors drilled Kezia’s body in the end, there were injuries to the 21 -year -old.

It was terrifying to see his friend to wrap the smell waste.

“We are not safe here. What is not. [repair] So, perhaps the level. “Otherwise, people are not safe.”

Unable to withstand tuition fees after his family became financially unstable, his daily routine is now far from libraries and lecture halls.

Youth unemployment is at the levels of crisis in Uganda, and there is a lot like the Prince who often risk their health and abandoning their dreams just to gain live.

Mr. Prince says: “I came here to discharge in the morning, collect polyethylene bags, and take them to wash and sell them.” “I make 10,000 shillings [equivalent to $2.70 or £2.10] day “.

The collapse left him in another financial distress as he used to live next to the discharge – but he was forced to move due to safety concerns.

The homes of others were also destroyed during the rescue operations.

Compensation funds were paid to the families of those who died, but not for about 200 people who lost their homes, and the local authorities have recognized the BBC.

Dr. Sarah Karen Zalwango, the new head of public health and environment at the KcCA City, said that officials are “awaiting evaluation and budget allocation.”

Some argue that the collapse of Kiteezi was inevitable because the basic sound sense was ignored.

“You cannot take four million people, and get all this waste, mixing – decomposing and non -decomposing – and take it to one dumping site. No, this is not how we are [ought to] Do that. “We have done it more than 20 years ago,” Frank Moramosi, a urban plan based in Kampala, told the BBC.

The Kiteezi Dumper was built in 1996, funded by the World Bank, to provide one major deposits for the solid waste created by KAMPala.

As Kampala has also grown, she also has the largest dumping of garbage.

On the northern edge of the city, it now covers 15 hectares (37 acres) – an area of ​​more than 22 degrees of football – with the spread of bad smell.

Birds of prey can be seen flying in the sky of the area.

The city’s residents and companies generate an estimated 2,500 tons of waste every day, half of them end in dumping sites throughout the city – the largest being Kiteezi.

But the problem is that Kiteezi lacks recycling, sorting and burning facilities.

“With the accumulation of each layer of garbage, the lower layers become weaker, especially since the decomposition of organic waste increases the temperature.”

“Without ventilation holes, methane and other gases are still trapped below, which increases the fragility of the attached structure loosely.”

He adds that it can be easily repaired, as long as the government is committed to periodic monitoring and scrutiny that is dealt with in environmental, social and economic needs.

He says: “If that was in his place, the chaos that occurred in Kitetzi would have been avoided.”

So, if the solution is simple, why doesn’t it really happen?

The answer appears to be a mixture of power conflicts and mismanagement.

The final responsibility for maintaining a “clean, housing and sustainable” environment with KCCA, but Mayor Erias Lukwago, of the opposition to democratic change, says that his office lacks the force necessary for changes.

KCCA says she has repeatedly suggested plans to turn off Kiteezi, but she says the funds needed to do so – $ 9.7 million – exceeding the city’s budget and the central government has not provided it.

“All the support we got is a matter of courtesy, development partners and donors such as Bill, Melinda Gates, Giz, and Witid … but their ability is very limited,” said the mayor of Kampala recently.

“If we are getting enough financing from the central government, we will be very far away now.”

There is no word from the government on whether it will allocate money to the largest emptying in Kampala.

She paid $ 1,350 for both the deceased’s families, saying that any other money will not be coming unless it turns out that government agencies are “responsible”.

A month later, a report submitted by the country’s investigation and crime investigation department led to Prime Minister Museveni – a famous political opponent of the mayor of Kampala – and he stopped three senior KCCA officials, including the executives of the authority.

James Bond Konoperi, a solid waste management official in Kampala, admits that the deadly collapse last year was a waking call that is needed.

Nowadays, the authorities in the Ugandan capital formulate plans to convert organic waste into fertilizer and reduce “unnecessary waste” into the city.

But they want the audience to take some responsibility as well. Currently, people pay one of the seven private waste companies working in Kampala to collect their garbage, which are all assembled with a little thinking of recycling.

“We have not changed the mindset of the population to sort the waste,” Mr. Konopier told BBC.

“If you sort, the waste has different destinations. If mixed, everything goes to one – the dump of waste.”

Experts say such initiatives are important, but do not address the largest structural deficiencies in Kiteezi.

For people whose lives were broken from recent events, it is too late.

“They promised us compensation, but I have not received anything – almost everyone complains about,” says Mr. Prince told the BBC.

“We lost our friend. All that happened in this process was sadness.”

Additional reports by Natasha Bagma.