The residents of Lusanja have petitioned Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja over the flooding of leachate in their homes.
In solid waste management, a leachate is any liquid that, in the course of passing through matter, extracts soluble or suspended solids, or any other component of the material through which it has passed.
In a petition, the residents argue that as a result of the collapse of garbage, there was a blockage of small rivers and drainage channels that transported the leachate. This has caused flooding, where most houses are all submerged in water. This has caused diseases like cholera and diarrhoea.
The residents revealed that whereas Kiteezi landfill was officially decommissioned, they (residents) have witnessed the continued dumping of garbage trucks that dump the garbage at the landfill at night.
In their petition, the residents also queried the secret assessment of property for compensation.
“Different officers have been moving around counting our properties without clear explanations and identifications. We suspect an act of land grabbing due to an unknown buffer zone being created on the land, which we own legally with freehold land titles. We need urgent explanations,” the residents said in the petition.
On Saturday, police foiled a planned demonstration by a group of residents waving placards protesting their discontent.
“We are the owners of these homes. No government official has come to us to ask us how we have been surviving since our homes were submerged. Our homes submerging should be blamed on the negligence of KCCA,” one said.
Earlier in the week, Lillian Aber, the minister of state for disaster preparedness, urged people tenants who are living in flooding areas to vacate.
She made the revelation while delivering the presidential pledge of sh1m to victims of the August catastrophe that left over 30 dead and several more injured.
