Garbage
Migori County Government has been asked to come up with a lasting solution to problems facing solid waste management in urban centres
The Director of Kuria Data Link Initiative Mr. Francis Marwa Gibai on Wednesday accused the devolved government of failing to come up with modern ways to manage waste in the region.
He said the municipal boards within the region were sleeping on their jobs to the point that heaps of garbage had become a threat to the lives of the urban dwellers. “The municipal bodies in the respective urban outfits must move to the next level and stop planning forever on how to manage wastes in urban set ups,” he said.
Gibai noted that the municipalities had for a long time stuck to cheap ways of disposing waste, a move that has led to an unnecessary collection of mountains of garbage in most towns and trading centres within the county.
“There is a major problem of environmental destruction in this region. The problem of domestic waste and plastic bottles destroying the environment in these towns and market places is enormous, and should be addressed immediately,” Mr. Gibai noted.
Heaps of uncollected garbage near an eatery in Migori town.
Kuria Data Link Initiative is an environmental body formed to try to fight the environmental degradation in the region.
The director said that local authorities countrywide must not seek easy options to resolve problems facing waste management but instead put in place up to date mechanisms towards enhancing efficiency in collection and disposal of waste.
Gibai advised that the municipality chiefs must seek to build systems for safe disposal of residual waste, replacing current disposal sites and using modern and high-tech ways of addressing heaps of wastes in their areas of jurisdiction. “They must be serious about cleaning up all illegal dumpsites and replace them with environmentally friendly ones,” he said.
County Municipal Board Chairman Robert Mandela assured that plans were on to acquire new machines to help in cleaning urban centres. “Currently, we have few tools that are shared among the eight sub counties and that are overwhelmed by the wastes generated every day by the local populations,” he said.
Migori County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Environment Julius Nyerere however disclosed that the county has embarked on a thorough clean up exercise to improve the hygiene and environmental safety of major towns in the county.