INVITATION FOR STAKEHOLDERS WORKSHOP

YES is preparing to hold a workshop Mambros ABC Restaurant on Tuesday Oct 2011 starting from 8:30am to 3:30pm. The workshop is aimed at presenting and discussing results of the Research Project UGoS on the use of waste and compost in agriculture, in Busia District, implemented by YES in partnership with the Busia Municipal Council, Makerere University and Vienna University of Technology. The project targeted on the knowledge and experiences of farmers in applying compost to their fields.

Planning meetings with the village environmental committees in Busia

 

 

YOUTH ENVIRONMENT SERVICE

Meeting updates at (YES)

23.09.2011

The Secretariat YES-Busia                                                                                                                                     Garbage waste collectors of BMC

YES meets committee members in Solo “ B”

There was a meeting held by YES with the Village Health Team (V.H.T) at the Mawero market. The meeting begun at 9:0 am and 20 members were in attendance. It was presided over by the Public Health Inspector (P.H.I), Mr. Mulimba James, Mr. Jacob the Principle Investigator and a researcher, from Austria, the YES staff, and the Councillor LC1 of Solo B village. The chairlady of the team in her speech threw a vote of thanks to the YES staff for having partnered with Mr. Jacob who introduced such a great Project that has brought tremendous changes in terms of environmental health and sanitation. 

 

She continued and appealed to members of the team to continue working together to maintain the situation. The chairman of the team also aired out that the YES staff has been so transparent in that it kept them informed of any activity and it provided various tools to them for use, it (YES staff) once also organised an exchange visit where they shared a lot of issues. The village councillor also addressed members and in his speech he urged the PHI to integrate the YES programs with his office programs. The PHI however in his presentation announced that 

 members should learn to demand for services, for example the issue of public toilets which had been raised. He went ahead and promised that whenever there is an activity at the Municipal council, YES as a team shall be involved, he encouraged members to be more creative, and in his conclusion appreciated YES for the great work.  Nevertheless, Jacob addressed and he emphasised members to prepare their work such that they present it on the day of the workshop conference scheduled on 4^th $ 6^th Oct this year.

 In the open discussion, members of the team put forward the most significant achievements of the project:

“Through community sensitization, several households have constructed latrines, are collecting their household waste in sacks (storage facility) instead of throwing them wherever, some have dug soak pits...”, as mentioned by one member of the team.

 Many recognised that there are no longer cholera outbreak reports which used to be rampant before.

Another one appreciated the uniforms they were provided that they helped them a lot whereby the word “Ecological Police” written on it gained them respect and guininely sold them to the entire public, the tools eased their work, and that they made friendship with the community and many are eager to join them.

 The program Coordinator YES Mr, Ongatai Amosiah in his remarks called upon the Team to remain committed because it determines the continuity of the project even when Jacob was to withdraw. Jacob has been the sponsor of the project.

Reported by Babirye Harriet documentation officer-reporting on environmental health-YES

YES meets Arubaine A Committee members

YES DAILY UPDATE

21.09.2011

Youth Environment Service secretariat

YES meets committee members in Arubaine A

The staff of YES held a meeting on 21.09.2011, with the village environment committee representatives, at the communal collection center which was headed by the project officer, Mr. Otim Simon.  It was presided over by Mr. Peter, (The Public Health Inspector) and the principal investigator, Mr. Jacob Lederer from Austria, who is also a researcher. The overall chair was Mr. Ongatai Amosiah, the Program coordinator YES. The committee contained over 8 members who all turned up. However, over 20 members attended the meeting. A review on the achievements as far as environment health is concerned was done, whereby through public sensitization at least 7 households so far have constructed  latrines , several have dug soak pits, the public has adopted the idea of collecting  household generated waste which they later take to the communal collection center, people no longer dump human waste anyhow instead they use the latrines, the hygiene of toilets has also greatly improved.   The greatest challenge experienced by the committee members is that the Municipal council has been reluctant to work with them regarding solid waste management as reported by the chairman of the committee. On that note however YES should put a coordinated effort to bring the Council on board which will enable the smooth running of the organizations activities, as addressed by Mr. Jacob. Nevertheless, the PHI in his speech assured the members that they are in a process of formulating bylaws that will empower the environment workers while providing their services. In his opening remarks however, the PHI thanked YES for its tireless contribution towards Environment Health and protection and urged them to continue with the good work they are rendering to the community.

Comunity mobilisation,environment and sanitation education.

The staff of Youth environment service(YES),the office of public health,the local council "1" and the village environmental committees were in it again, for the second time conducting comunity awareness in the selected four villages of Busia muncicpal council.
The activities conducted include planning meeting with the village leaders on improving sanitation conditions of the comunity by helping to provide sufficient information throughout the villages with poor sanitation and environmental,and hygiene indicators.Creating a model of comunity participation in comunual voluntary clean up exercise in their locality and at household level adaptable to the local conditions,and assisting the comunity to establish asystem to manage solid waste properly.

This intervention was meant to address the following needs  of the selected villages:Improvement of the living conditions and the promotion of better conditions for income-generation opportunites,such as establishment of market stalls in spaces once used as dumping ground.fullfillment of proper hygienic conditions for visitors,family members and other recreational activities.
Achievements have been the following A comunity-managend solid waste management systems established.through identification of comunual collection centres,establsihment of vehicle route map,and  an agreed date for vheicle movement  and known by the comunity.
Over 2,700 people where reached with basic health,sanitation and hygiene messages.

The project volunteers after field work,always gather to have field reflection and share challenges for intervention the next day.Members respect each other and listen attentively to their team leader Mr Ongatai Amosiah who heads project coodination and management.(in darkcoat)

 The comunity members try understand why all the people are moving house to house conducting the sanitation mobilisation exercise.

 That place is very dirty, you can see and you people are here staying in a very dirty place,can we join hands and clean here now before we go to the next place(Ecological police seems to be saying so)

 The Environmental police are tired,time to go home,this exercise takes only 3 hours ,they are listening to the project officer field operation Mr Otim Simon before departure.

 Residents try to explain their concern as far as waste management is concerned to the Ecological police.

The development of toilet inventory is under way,many people close to 65 households had no toilets and 47 households,their toilets have indication nearing out of use within two months time or weeks.
Over 100 households have no acceptable standard sanitary facilities in the municpality.

Awareness raising through comunity education and sanitation counselling

Under the UGoS project,Youth environment service has managed to reach over 17,000,(seventeen thousand people in the four selected villages,through the village environmental committees known as the ecological police who are  voluntarily working day and evening to monitor illegal waste dumping,monitor households/buildings without toilets and all the sanitary facilities,the aim of the programe is to build comunity capacity to implement individual household to operationalise their roles and responsibilities more effectively and efficiently in asustainable manner.The goal of the programe is to improve on the living environment and human health.
The children and women have benefited alot from this preventive health programe,when you clearly look at the behaviour of children;the hand to mouth activities when crawling puts them at higher risk in unsanitary environment or places with open defication.
The project outcomes:
Incidence of water- borne diseases has been reduced and,related to the increased health status of the local comunities in the project area.
Increased human productivity and bussiness opportunites in places where waste was aproblem to conduct bussiness.

Village environmental health debate in progress in Arubaine "A"

YES volunteers conducting waste sampling exercise in Arubaine "A"

WASH school education awareness in progress,YES volunteers sensitise pupils in class,the children are good change agents.

Compost manure used for raising seedlings in school.

Waste properly managed under the skip area management programe by the environmental teams.

Crops in the demonstration site,Maize in Buteba Subcounty.

Village meeting in Solo A Village

Landlords contract masons to build toilet. in Mawero village our project area.

Last community meeting for all stakeholders in Arubaine "A"

Since February 2011,the village environment committees have been conducting mobilisation,education and monthly supportive site visits to households and landlords without proper household waste storage facility and landlords without latrines.
But the meeting  for today was meant to address the few identified needs of this village by the environment committees,with last warning for landlords to improve on the  waste and sanitation gaps and fullfilment of proper hygienic conditions for tenants,the calls were made by tenants,including the presence of medical waste in the waste skip.They all agreed that comunity managed solid waste system, is improving and there is no need to fall back again after all this achievements.
They requested the landlord and the muncipal council to open up drainage route for floods and rain water in the area.
The Public Health Inspector Mr James Mulimba apologised to the community for ineffecient waste collection and delay,he promised to address the comunity recomandations.

Waste sampling and recording at Busia's main market

The knowledge on quantity and quality of solid waste is crucial for sound solid waste management planing. In March 2011, three weeks of waste sampling exercise were conducted by YES at different spots in Busia.

Compostable biodegradable organic waste is used by farmers as fodder for animals, but also as manure. Besides, Busia will receive a new composting facility through another project, which requires good knowledge on the input material. Plastic bags have been recorded in other Ugandan towns with a composting facility, which may have an impact not only on the composting process and the compost, but also on the popularity of the product among farmers

.

A much bigger issue are potential hazardous wastes in the compost raw material. While injection needles from health care wastes or glass chips may hurt workers sorting the waste, batteries or industrial waste water sludge may increase heavy metal concentrations in the waste. Thus, the sampling exercise aimed to trace out 1) the waste quantity available and 2) the waste composition with regards to compostable and non-compostable waste, but also amounts of potential hazardous materials, in order to distinguish between high- and low- quality waste for composting in Busia.

Results confirm the waste analysis figures of Makerere University (2006), assigned by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA). The share  of non-compostable waste, such as plastic bags, is much higher at the the collection center in the residential area, while the market waste shows relatively high homogenity. Besides, the collection center in the residential area received health-care wastes from neighboring clinics.