RCE North Rift Engages Communities on Integrated Solid Waste Management
(Submitted by RCE North Rift, with edits from Global RCE Service Centre)
RCE North Rift, in its mandate to help communities to identify and develop solutions for emerging global environmental issues, has been engaging communities at different levels in realising their mandates. Recently a group of individuals from the network took an initiative to address different environmental challenges faced by the communities in Trans zoia County. Kitale town in this county is faced with poor waste management strategies, especially solid and liquid wastes. Due to increased population moving to towns for different reasons, mainly being, to look for income-generating jobs and others to settle, high rates of waste generation have been witnessed. “It is very painful to see solid litters all over, including the museums, streets, foot paths and clogged sewer and storm water lines”, says the lead Mr. Ngige of Dajopen Waste management.
The community was sensitised on the way they could realise the theme Wastes are resources. Through this, the community need to understand the need to avoid, reduce, reuse and recycle wastes that are appropriate for strategies to ensure that the entire community stays safe from a polluted environment. Wastes should not come into contact with any member of the society, except for the trained personnel who are actively involved in safe handling of different kinds of wastes; today it can be safe to have a contact, but tomorrow it may not be safe as usual.
Other areas of the sensitisation included:- Basic ecology, agroforestry, organic farming and the importance of planting indigenous trees. This was done in the Kitale forest.
- Collection, sorting, reuse, recycling and reduction of solid wastes, this was done together with massive cleaning at the Kitale museum.
- Training on how to prepare holes for tree planting, done with demonstrations at the Kitale museum riparian land.
Photo (left): Community engagement in integrated solid waste management, by the team at the Kitale museum.
Photo (right): How to make holes and plant trees, lead by Mr. Ngige.
(Photo sources: RCE North Rift)
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