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Fort Portal, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Fort Portal City Council has passed a waste management ordinance to regulate garbage collection.
The ordinance comes at a time when there is public outcry over increased garbage in the city.
According to the ordinance, all garbage will be privatized to contractors who shall be responsible to collect garbage from the Central and Northern division. The contractors will be paid depending on the amount of garbage ferried to the landfill.
Under the ordinance, anybody who dumps rubbish risks being prosecuted, fined or both.
Albert Ahebwa, the Fort Portal City Speaker is optimistic that the ordinance shall ease their work on garbage management which for long has been a challenge.
Betty Mujungu, the Fort Portal North division female city councillor says the ordinance will provide a lasting solution for the garbage impasse in the city especially within North division. She adds that the law will also seek to enhance sanitation and better hygiene practices.
Margret Kabajwara, the city female youth councillor wants the authorities to ensure strict implementation of the law.
Available records indicate that the city generates at least 150 tons of garbage each month, which is largely heaped at dumping sites where it is either burnt or left to decompose.
Initially, garbage would be collected by the council which would avail trucks for the task and the divisions would buy the fuel to transport the garbage to the landfill.
However, this proved inefficient as either the trucks would break down and take months without being repaired or divisions would fail to provide the fuel.
This attracted sharp criticism from the public that the once-cleanest town was choking on garbage.
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