One Saturday a month: Is Uganda cleaning enough to stay clean?

KCCA executive director Sharifah Buzeki sweeping the city

Recently, Uganda once again came to a standstill for three hours as citizens picked up brooms, hoes and shovels for the National General Cleaning Day.

Streets were swept, drainage channels cleared, rubbish collected and public spaces given a much-needed facelift. It was an encouraging sight. The more pertinent question is not whether Ugandans can clean for three hours on the last Saturday of every month, but whether we are learning to stay clean every other day.

The government has designated the last Saturday of every month as National Cleaning Day, with the exercise running for three hours to 10am. The initiative is intended to strengthen sanitation, hygiene and preventive healthcare.

But can one Saturday a month realistically address Uganda’s sanitation challenge? Consider Kampala. The city generates between 2,000 and 2,500 tonnes of waste every day. KCCA has recently licensed nine private waste collectors, with eight of them having a combined capacity of about 1,669 tonnes per day, alongside KCCA’s own capacity of approximately 500 tonnes.

Even with this improved capacity, the numbers demonstrate the scale of the challenge. Kampala is producing waste every single day, while our major national cleaning intervention happens for only three hours a month.

This means National Cleaning Day should perhaps not be viewed as the cleaning programme itself, but as the entry point into a much bigger national sanitation and behaviour change campaign.

The real question should be: How do we use the enthusiasm generated by one Saturday to change behaviour for the remaining 29 or 30 days? Uganda already has institutions capable of sustaining this momentum.

Imagine every school adopting a structured weekly sanitation and hygiene programme – not simply sweeping classrooms, but teaching pupils about proper waste disposal, handwashing, toilet hygiene, keeping drainage channels clear and protecting the environment.

Imagine universities having environmental clubs that monitor waste management, both on campus and in neighbouring communities. Imagine churches, mosques and other religious institutions incorporating practical messages about cleanliness into their regular programmes.

The same model could extend to public spaces such as markets. Rather than depending entirely on a monthly national mobilisation, these institutions could become permanent centres for promoting cleanliness and responsible environmental behaviour.

National Cleaning Day would then become the moment when the entire country comes together while the actual work of sustaining cleanliness continues within institutions and communities throughout the month.

The condition of Uganda’s drainage channels illustrates why the campaign needs to go beyond sweeping roads. A clean street means very little if the trench beside it is filled with plastic bottles, polythene bags and other waste.

Kampala has repeatedly experienced flooding due to blocked drainages, with KCCA warning about the effects of poor waste disposal and materials such as polythene bags.

Every cleaning exercise, therefore, presents an opportunity not only to remove waste, but also to explain why it should never have been placed in the trench in the first place. This is where sensitisation can become an important component of the campaign.

While people are cleaning, they can also be reminded about handwashing, toilet hygiene, proper disposal of household waste, avoiding plastic dumping, keeping drainage channels open, protecting wetlands, etc

There is also an opportunity to better utilise the private waste-management companies already contracted by authorities. KCCA’s engagement of private collectors of waste creates an opportunity for communities, local authorities and waste companies to work within clearly defined areas and collection schedules.

A resident should know where to put waste, when it will be collected, who is responsible for collecting it and where it ultimately goes. It makes little sense for citizens to collect heaps of rubbish during a national cleaning exercise, only for the waste to remain piled along roadsides for days.

However, there is a danger that must be guarded against: politicisation. The National Cleaning Day should not become another platform for politicians to compete over who mobilised the biggest crowd.

Sanitation is a public-health responsibility, not a political popularity contest. The broom should unite citizens, not become another tool for political mobilisation. The recent cleaning exercise also showed why enforcement must be handled carefully.

In Ndejje, a boda boda rider was shot dead during the exercise after attempting to pass through a secured area, with the police officer involved subsequently arrested.

Whatever the circumstances, such incidents should remind authorities that a campaign intended to promote public health must be driven primarily by education, persuasion, participation and sensible enforcement – not fear or violence. Ugandans appear willing to embrace the idea of a cleaner country.

The challenge now is to build a system that converts that willingness into everyday behaviour. One Saturday a month is a good beginning, but it cannot be the destination.

Perhaps the next phase should be about making National Cleaning Day more structured, measurable and institutionalised, with schools, universities, religious institutions, businesses, local governments and waste-management companies each playing defined roles.

We should measure not only how many tonnes of waste are collected, but also how many illegal dumping sites disappear; how many drainage channels remain unblocked; how many institutions sustain sanitation programmes and, most importantly, whether public behaviour changes.

Because the ultimate success of National Cleaning Day will not be measured by how clean Uganda looks on the last Saturday of the month. It will be measured by whether that same Uganda remains clean on an ordinary Tuesday.

[email protected]

The writer is a public affairs commentator

The post One Saturday a month: Is Uganda cleaning enough to stay clean? appeared first on The Observer Media Ltd.