Abstract
Mbarara Municipality in Western Uganda has for many years struggled to manage municipal solid waste. Leaders in this municipality have mainly attributed this persistent problem to poor financing, failure to enforce existing solid waste management laws and regulations, limited community participation, deprived attitude by the public towards waste collection, and tendency of municipal dwellers to litter. No in-depth academic study in Mbarara Municipality has ever been done to expose and illustrate how corruption directly happens and influence solid waste management. This study fills this knowledge gap by illustrating how corruption influences poor solid waste management in Mbarara Municipality. The study finds that municipal technical officials, garbage truck drivers, their turn boys, garbage sorters, factory owners, and private land grabbers all involved in different forms of corruption have directly and indirectly turned solid waste collection and disposal into a very costly problem to the municipal council and the general public. The article recommends that fighting corruption in all its forms without fear or favor, encouraging them to play their role particularly in sorting waste, adoption of smart technologies, and putting in place measures that attract private investors while protecting the public can help in the effective management of solid waste in Mbarara Municipality.
Highlights
Increased municipal solid waste production is a natural consequence of urbanisation, economic, and population growth [1]
Most studies and media reports in Uganda have attributed the problem to poor financing, failure to enforce existing waste management laws, political interferences, lack of community participation, poor attitude by the public towards waste collection, inadequate planning, and people’s tendency to throw garbage anywhere including environmentally sensitive areas [8,9,10,11,12,13]
Noncompostable solid waste which may be of no further value is supposed to be put into the landfill. e compostable garbage is further processed into manure and sold to community users at Ushs 70,000 (US$ 18.6) per ton. is money is supposed to be deposited on the municipal council bank account and is expected to cover most of the municipal solid waste management costs such as truck repairs, fuel, salaries for drivers, and garbage sorters (interview, Principal Medical Officer of Health (PMOH) Mbarara Municipality, 9 May 2019)
Summary
Increased municipal solid waste production is a natural consequence of urbanisation, economic, and population growth [1]. Unlike cities/towns in developed countries which have effective mechanism for managing municipal solid waste, those in developing countries face huge challenges [2,3,4,5,6]. In Uganda, municipal solid waste is very huge challenge in almost all the cities/municipalities [7]. Studies/media in other parts of the world have indicated that corruption can be a huge hindrance to effective management of municipal solid waste [14,15,16]. No academic study has been undertaken to understand the nature and magnitude of corruption embedded within the solid waste management processes in this municipality a gap filled by this research article
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