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The Ugandan government is not happy with the shabby attitude exhibited by many wanainchi in the form of irresponsible wastewater and rubbish disposal.

http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/Environment.asp?id=922 

There is a book that I am reading dealing with a similar situation, in which the government was deciding if they were to spend money on cleaning the streets.  It was the decision of no that happened.  They felt that even if the government spent the money on cleaning the streets, the people would just foul them again in little time and the money would be wasted for nothing. 

The clean up effort has to start with the people.  It is the people that carelessly toss the garbage down the drains.  The people have to have pride in their living area, take pride in themselves and take pride in "The Pearl of Africa"  Start by cleaning around your living area on the inside, then outside, and then the roads around your living area.  If you are not near an area that has trash collection, set up an area to burn your garbage on certain days of the week.  Set up compost areas.  Recycle.  Do what you know is right to make your area and area of pride.  Set yourselves up for success.  Help each other, encourage LCs to recognize clean areas.  Make Uganda the Pearl of Africa again.

Couldn't have said it any better.  The buck starts with "me"!  I don't like living in a dirty place - so if I'm gonna live in an area or work - I aim to make sure I make it comfortable for me to settle down into.

During my student haunts, I was faced with sharing a communal living arrangement.  Boy was it filthy - and I mean rat-stinking filthy (no offense to persons who see rats as a delicacy!).  We were all training for a career within the health services - medics, nurses, radiographs - you name it.. we were all there.  I often wondered why they needed to use incubators in laboratory experiements- our communal fridge was more than adequate for the job.  As for the bathroom - ayooyoyie!!! I swear the cashier at the local supermarket must have suspected me of substance abuse for the amount of bleach I used to purchase weekly.  Then the communal bins... these got filled up by ghosts - for nobody except "mugshot" me volunteered to empty them - I didn't fancy any illness borne out of such. The list is endless... I was occasionally relieved of my second job as "cleaner", by the communal residential cleaning person.  But even, they sometimes opted to find alternative means of employment after a week or so. Still, by the time my stint at the halls of residence drew to a close, I'd manage to convert a few into my way of living and thinking. 

Then I moved to an area where sorting out the front garden was perceived as a no-no.  Kids & adults alike used such areas as dumping grounds for rubbish and their pets filled in the gaps with their used bodily products.   After months of picking up litter myself and the girls (they sure do hate me for making them do it I'm sure!) and - yes, sweeping our pavement of fallen autumnal debris, the council finally relented and agreed to send us regulated daily cleaners.  Now I'm glad to say - the competion is on yearly to see who has the best front english garden! 

The bain of cat-litter!!! Lord help me I'm very nearly going to be up against the RCPCA for killing these creatures. They have this in-built radar to come mess up my freshly dug garden, ruining the bulbs and leaving me deposits of their poo!  As if its golden poo and I can trade it in!!!

 SB, those cats r doing the needful - adding fresh manure 2 yo garden. Why do u think it is looking so good?

I think N.E.M.A. should constitute an environmental TAX and an Environmental POLICE to boot!...coersion seems to " encourage" Ugandans more than Persuasion...for our own GOOD!

I am with you on that Nanteza, if you hit people where it hurts and in this case in their pockets that may concetrate their minds a bit

 Either common sense is not common or it is not in vogue to have common sense these days. We are steadily and surely choking our planet and feeling smug about it. We are ready to plunder it and let our descendants 'have fun' with the products of our recklessness.

Nanteza

First of all I would like to welcome you.  I agree with you that we need an Environmental agency and police to monitor what is going on.  But this agency needs to have the real power and authority to enforce the laws they put on the books.  What will happen the ppl will bribe themselves out of the infraction.  The most important route to take is education of the ppl and making ppl take responsibility for the polution they are causing.  Some ppl are not aware that their behavior and actions are ruining the environment.

Kaks I hope when you say we are distroying the planet, you are including everybody.  Have you looked at the pictures coming out of China where the air pollution is so bad that some olympians are refusing to compete because of bad air.  Or have you seen some pictures coming out of India, where the Ganges(sp) is so polluted and even aquatic animals are dying.  Also you have to watch out for some companies coming into our country pretending to bring development.  They are coming to our country because they cannot produce their product in their countries because of the strict environmental laws in their countries.  The only way we can protect the planet is to introduce the world environmental laws governing all the countries.

For example, DDT cannot be produced or sold in the USA, but what did these companies do?  They went to Africa and South America to produce their deadly product.  Smoking is restricted in most USA cities and the number of ppl smoking in America has declined by a big margin, so they go to developing countries to make their profit, because we do not have a strong international law prohibiting this kind of behaviors.

My two cents

Qsheeba am xcited to read a response from you I was already a fan of yr earlier posts especially the one aboout the "east"! its late on my side of the world  and I wish I had more time. Believe me if there is anything worth FIGHTING FOR , TALKING ABOUT , RALLYING FOR, its our environment!

Nothing touches me more, I grew up and was born on the shores of Lake Vic, Ebb. I'll leave my childhood dreams and memories about that to your imagination. Recently something came back to my memory , on one of my earlier visits to UG I remember coming across a big signpost at KITUBULU, Ebb before there was that "beach hotel/rest stop/barbecue/outdoor disco", that proclaimed "WATER IS LIFE"!!! It might still be there but now that I think about it I did not see it on my last visit in '07 because ironically I think the site it once occupied is the same one that hosts that "rest stop".

Think about this, without Lake Vic most of Uganda would be an arid wasteland like northern KENYA ! Any sensible geographer need not be reminded that this lake is the source of more than the river Nile! it is the source of Uganda's whole micro climate, micro population setlement pattern and much more! Back in the day we had a depatment of water and mineral resources or something to that effect( mark the word "resouirces"), today we have a miriad of departments and agencies masquerading as protectors and managers of ( what's left )  of those "resources" including WATER you can read into the 'management' part of it all you want but in my mind just like everthing else in the world in general and Uganda in particular , this generation has been handed a raw deal by the so called baby boomers of our own country and the blame lies on the shoulders of one central organ and that is the (what Sen. Obama refers to as PEBOS) "powers that be!  this is the card that we have been dealt and the sooner we realise and sensitize those who dont know it, the better it'll be for all of us and those who come after us becuase what Ugandans have learned from "history" is that they have not learned from it! That selfishnessand greed have prevailed and selflessness has lost!!