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Panic as hospital Biowaste disposal at Katikolo

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Panic as hospital Biowaste disposal at Katikolo
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Residents in Mukono municipality's central division, Katikolo Village dumping site, have voiced their concerns about the foul-smelling water coming from the one borehole that supplies more over two hundred homes.

The Mukono municipality council approved a resolution in August 2024 giving the Kampala city council permission to utilise the Katikolo landfill site temporarily.

There was fierce opposition to the measure from several council members. next the resolution, a fleet of garbage trucks from Kampala, the capital of Uganda, began disposing of waste the next day; nevertheless, the people living in the three villages of Katikolo, Kisenyi, and Kitale have begun to feel the negative effects of having a dump site with many issues, including dust from speeding trucks, air pollution, water pollution from the garbage, and hospital waste.

John Lutalo, the Katikolo cell's publicity secretary, emphasised the difficulty in getting clean water in the area because the waters from the area's lone borehole have taken on an odd odour and turned yellowish in colour.

Lutalo continued, saying that he had reported the issue to the Mukono authorities after noticing the problem, but they had not yet addressed it.

"We petitioned the office of the Mukono municipality mayor, to rescue us from unclean water because majority of us have resorted to walking long distances to get clean water" stated Lutalo.

Residents of Katikolo, like Gerald Bosa, said that the problem usually becomes worse during the rainy season and that he believes it started at the waste site before KCCA arrived to utilise the place.

According to Mukono municipality environment officer George Masengere, the municipality barred people from utilising the water sources nearby and promised to provide clean water through alternative means.

In addition to the water problem, biological wastes, including thousands of used ampoules and vials, as well as sharps like syringes, have been disposed of at Katikolo, which has caused a public uproar.

Locals blame KCCA trucks for disposing of bio waste at Katikolo, claiming that the practice puts the community's health at serious risk. Additionally, a lot of people's gardens are close to the disposal site.

The spokesperson for the Kampala City Council Authority, Dan Nuwabine, denied claims that hospital bio waste is being transported from Kampala.

Nuwabine added that a permanent employee of the KCCA is stationed at Katikolo to make sure that no unlawful waste enters the location.

"We have an official place where we incenerate biomedical wastes from Kampala, we also have a fulltime employee at Katikolo to ensure that no medical waste enters, the people doing it risk their licenses to be terminated" Nuwabine stated.

Due to the excessive number of vehicles that dump rubbish there every day, the Katikolo dumping site is currently full. As a result, some council members of the Mukono municipality wish to cancel the verbal agreement they had with KCCA.

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