Kampala, Uganda

Waste Generation and Lack of Disposal

Demand for consumables drives business in the city but also leads to waste generation. When coupled with inadequate waste management systems, the result is an accumulation of waste scattered around the city, posing environmental risks. The generation of methane related to waste management, in addition to carbon emissions, raises issues of sustainability. With one landfill already declared unsanitary, individuals are largely responsible for the unsustainable waste management practices of indiscriminate dumping, burning, and compositing—the biggest environmental challenges in the city. An estimated 1,000 tons of wastes are generated per day in the city, but only about 40 percent is collected and disposed of. Seventy-five percent of the waste is organic, and three-fourths of the organic wastes are peelings from bananas, potatoes, cassava, and sweet potatoes. This implies that nutrients transfer from the rural hinterland to the city. Making the city greener would require social, technological, and economic innovation to establish systems for recycling the nutrients. Various innovations at the neighborhood and city levels are being piloted, including nutrient recycling. An example is “food peelings,” which has evolved as a technological and economic innovation. The system comprises four elements: collection for livestock feeding, composting the peelings for urban farmers, collecting and retransporting them to rural areas for manure, and a collection-drying-milling process used for poultry feed. The later innovation is the newest and can reduce the amount of landfill waste by 50 percent. This has multiple effects: a reduction in costs for waste management, reduction in energy for such transportation, and reduction in emissions. These neighborhood-level activities are turning the tide of over two decades’ reduction in ecosystem services, making Kampala City greener.

Impact of the Transportation System

An important aspect of Kampala City is its transportation system. Urbanism has been described by various attributes, among which mobility is a key characteristic. Urban population mobility is driven by three broad factors: economic, characterized by movement between home and work place; social, in response to social need through visits; and political, in terms of the power relations among people at household, community, and city levels, as explained by the “political economy” theory. Associated with population mobility is demand for energy for the transportation sector. Although domestic energy demand can surpass that of transportation if the wood biomass is considered, recent studies show a high mobility rate among the residents for economic reasons. With this level of energy use, the toll on the environment is through greenhouse gas emissions. The transportation sector is largely inefficient and unsustainable because of high costs, travel time, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of from 0.11 kg CO2/L to 3.54 kg CO2/L of diesel fuel. In addition to the transportation-related energy demand, there is a demand to generate power for different uses, following a reduction in national hydropower generation. A government tax waiver on diesel products and generators triggered a surge in diesel fuel use across the country. This has increased CO2 emissions, a situation requiring reversal to achieve the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emission target of 2 tons per capita.

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