“My friend died at the garbage garbage dump”

Winning from tears, the 22-year-old garbage collector Okuku Prince recalls the moment when his best friend's lifeless body was found on massive garbage in Uganda's capital, Campal.

The landslide of the Kiteezi landfill last August died 30 people, including his girlfriend Sanya Kesia.

“I think some people are still under the garbage,” he told the BBC.

Many of them have made their livelihood, washing and selling any discarded objects that have found that they still have value – everything from fishing nets to plastic bottles, glass jars and components of old electronic devices.

After the fatal collapse, the guilt broke out, with the Campala Municipal Council and the central government blaming each other in negligence, while some of the dead still disappeared under tons of garbage without the dignity of the funeral.

When government tractors eventually dug Kesia's body, there were injuries to the face of the 21-year-old youth.

It was terrifying his friend to see him surrounded by stinking, rotting waste.

“We are not safe here. Unless they correct it), they may be equalized. Otherwise, people are not safe,” says Mr Prince, who has studied a law at the Islamic University of Uganda before becoming a junk pepper.

Unable to afford training fees after his family has become financially unstable, his daily life is already far from libraries and lecture halls.

Youth unemployment is at crisis levels in Uganda and there are many as a Prince, who often risk their health and abandon their dreams just to have a living.

“I come here to the landfill in the morning, I collect bags for polyethylene, I take them for washing and selling,” says Prince. “I do 10,000 shillings (equivalent to $ 2.70 or $ 2.10) a day.”

The collapse left him in more financial suffering, as he lived on the side of the landfill – but had to move because of safety concerns.

The houses of others were also destroyed during rescue operations.

The money for compensation was paid to the families of the dead, but not to about 200 people who lost their homes, local authorities have recognized the BBC.

The officials are “waiting for the budget assessment and distribution,” says Dr. Sarah Karen Zalwango, the new head of public health and the environment in the Campal city in Sofia (KCCA).

Some claim that the collapse of catets is inevitable as the main common sense is ignored.

“You can't pick up four million people, take all these waste mixed – degradable and undigested – and bring it to a discard site. No, it's not (we have to do it). But we have been doing it for more than 20 years,” says Frank Mramuzi, based on the Capital Planning Campal, “says BBC.

The Kiteezi depot was built in 1996 with a World Bank funding to provide a single, major solid waste depositor generated by Campal.

As the Campal increases, its largest garbage landfill.

On the northern edge of the city it now covers 15 hectares (37 acres) – an area the size of more than 22 football terrains – as its stench spreads even more.

May Dikes Cut can be seen flying on top.

Residents and businesses in the city generate approximately 2500 tonnes of waste every day, half of which find themselves in disposal sites throughout the city – the biggest is Kiteezi.

The problem, however, is that Kiteezi lacks recycling, sorting and burning facilities that landfills must have.

“With each layer of garbage accumulated, the lower layers become greater, especially when the disintegration and decomposition of organic waste raises the temperature,” explains G -n -Mramuzi.

“Without openings, methane and other gases remain trapped at the bottom, further multiplying the fragility of the freely held structure.”

However, this can easily be corrected, he adds as long as the government is committed to the periodic monitoring and the audits that Facker in the environmental, social and economic needs.

If that had already been in place, “the chaos that happened in Catezi would be avoided,” he says.

So, if the solution is so simple, why is it not happening anymore?

The answer seems to be a combination of power struggles and financial mismanagement.

The ultimate responsibility for maintaining the “Clean, High and Sustainable Environment” Campal lies in the KCCA, but Mayor Eri Loukago of the Opposition Forum for the Party for Democratic Change, says that his office does not have the necessary power to introduce changes.

KCCA says he has repeatedly offered plans to postpone Cotters, but says the funds needed to do so – $ 9.7 million – exceed the city's budget and are not provided by the central government.

“All the support we receive is the kindness of the development partners and the donors such as Bill Melinda Gates, Giz and Wateraid … But their capacity is very limited,” the Mayor of Campal recently said.

“If we received adequate funding from the central government, we would be very far away right now.”

There is no word from the government whether it will allocate funds for the largest dump of Campal.

He paid $ 1350 to each of the deceased's families, saying that additional money would only be upcoming if government agencies were “found for responsible”.

A month later, a report presented by the Police and Crime Investigation Division in the country led to President Jerry Museven, a well -known political opponent of the Mayor of Campal – dismissing three senior KCCA officials, including the executive directors of the body and public health.

James Bond Kunobere, a Campal Hard Waste Management Officer, admits that last year's deadly collapse was a very necessary call.

Authorities in the Uganda capital are currently preparing plans to turn organic waste into compost and reduce the “unnecessary waste” entering the city.

But they also want the public to take responsibility. Currently, people are paying one of the seven private waste companies operating in the Campal to collect their garbage, which is all complete with a little thought given for recycling.

“We have not changed the thinking of residents to sort waste,” says BBC's Kunobere.

“If you sort, the waste has different destinations. If you mix, everything goes to one – the landfill.”

Experts say such initiatives are important, but do not deal with the greater structural inconsistencies in Kiteezi.

And for the people whose life has been broken from the recent events there, it is too a little too late.

“They promised us compensation, but I have not received anything – almost everyone complains,” Prince told BBC.

“We lost our friend. Everything that turned into the process was grief.”

Additional reporting from Booty Natasha.