No dustbins: Taxi drivers complain, stuck with rubbish

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  A number of taxi operators in Kampala are in a state of confusion, on where to dump the trash they would have collected from passengers in their vehicles, under the new anti-littering penalty announced by NEMA.

Under the National Environment Act 2019, NEMA is mandated to protect the environment, and also to handle the environmental offences stipulated within the act.

In February, NEMA announced a number of regulations to protect the environment, under which an express penalty scheme of up to UGX 6 million was introduced for a motorist who lacks a trash bin in their vehicle. However, this has since been opposed by the Uganda law society, saying it is not provided for in the Ugandan laws.

The enforcement of these regulation was to commence on 1st April, but instead the authority started with sensitization, saying this was so because NEMA had granted a 30 days’ grace period to motorists, to allow installation of trash bins in their vehicles, as well as room to create more public awareness about the regulations.

However, though some of the operators have stated installing the trash bin, the question of where to dump the trash that would be collected in these bins, is still puzzling them, due to the absence of dumping grounds in the taxi parks.

Aisha Nanteza, a driver and the secretary for women affairs at the leadership committee of Federation of Uganda Taxi Operators-UTOF, says that it is not yet clear where they should be dumping this trash after collecting it.

“We don’t even have a dumping ground in the taxi park, so where are we expected to dump this collected rubbish when we enter the park?” Nanteza asked.

According to Nanteza it will make no sense to collect the trash and have nowhere to dump it. she adds that though the regulation is good, the authorities would have provided where to dump before enforcing it.

Ibrahim Ssaamanya, another driver who has already installed the trash bin in his car, admitted that due to the absence of a dumping ground in the park, he is compelled to deposit what has collected in Najjembe along Jinja Road.

Ssamanya adds that the mechanism on how to manage the trash bins while in the vehicles, is also not clear, right from the exact position where to place it for it to fully serve its purpose.

The other operators URN talked to said that before the introduction of these trash bins in cars, they have been having no particular place to dump, saying that they could leave the trash wherever they cleaned the cars from.

Others said the trash was always taken by the cleaners who handle their cars. But under this new arrangement they don’t know what to do in order not to be caught on the wrong side of the law.

Others have stressed that the passengers pose another obstacle to this arrangement, because many of them deliberately throw the trash out depending on the position they are seated in the vehicle, and the operator ends up being the culprit.

However, William Lubuulwa, a senior information, education and communication officer at NEMA, the absence of dumping place in the taxi parks among other issues, has kept on coming up from the public transporters during the sensitization process.

He adds that, that why they are in collaboration with other agencies.

Lubuulwa says that environmental management in Uganda is decentralized, with NEMA as the overseer, he adds that KCCA should be in position to provide these places in the parks.

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