Government Changes National Cleaning Day Waste Plan After First Exercise Overwhelms Collection System

Government changes National Cleaning Day waste procedures after roadside garbage piled up, highlighting gaps in collection, logistics and disposal planning.

News: Government has banned participants from piling collected waste along roads during the second National Cleaning Day on August 29. Local leaders are instead required to identify designated collection points from which trucks can evacuate the waste. The change follows problems during the inaugural July exercise, when large quantities of collected garbage remained on some Kampala roads for days and, in some places, weeks.

Collected garbage should be kept away from the roads

Context: Government had reportedly anticipated about 2,500 tonnes of collected waste during the first exercise, but the volume in Kampala was said to have reached about 40,000 tonnes. KCCA subsequently acknowledged gaps in the collection system and has been increasing collection capacity through private operators, designated collection points and additional trucks. Kampala ordinarily generates roughly 2,000–2,500 tonnes of waste per day.

Stakeholder Implications: The lesson extends beyond public cleanliness campaigns: waste collection is a logistics and infrastructure system. Mobilising citizens to collect waste without matching disposal sites, collection points, trucks, routing, transfer capacity and final treatment simply relocates the problem. The revised arrangements will test whether one month later, the lessons from the first exercise have translated into operational planning.