A RIVER BETWEEN THE CITY TURNS INTO A DUMPING SITE

Communities living along river Ihanga that flows its water between the city are miserable. They have been dumping the garbage’s and other remains of the materials like rusted irons, remains from carpentry, plastic bags and rugs in the river.

As per the observation I made along the river from Isyesye village to Iyunga, there are garbages that are taken by water and deposited in other places along the river banks. Usually the lighter garbages are carried downstream and the heavy ones remain behind. When I tried to find out the reasons why the people decided to turn the river between the city into a dumping site I had no answer. I decided to visit the communities concerned at different times and find out the answers.

In 14th April 2011, I visited Isyesye village where I was able to meet different people, among them were members of street environmental committees and I tried to ask why do their people decided to dump their garbage to the river? The answer I got was because of unplanned settlement in the city. Most of the houses in that area are very close in such a way that they lack a place to put a skip bin. Other people in these communities were aware of the effects down the stream but others ignored and said they do not care of what happens down stream what they care is their garbage’s is not in their surrounding area.

In the second day I went to another village downstream where the water is used for different purposes including domestic use. I asked them if they face problems that associate with water born diseases like cholera and they agreed, this is when I realized that the ones that are polluting water upstream do not care what happens to other people using water down stream.

I came to conclude that these communities have never been exposed to issues concerning the impacts of environmental pollution such as water. Let’s join together and protect our environment so that we can make the world a nice place to live!
Written by Tulizo Malavanu-YET-2011