UN-HABITAT last week handed over specialized garbage collection equipment to the towns around Lake Victoria benefitting from an initiative the agency is spearheading in the region. A Kenyan firm, Ndume Engineering Limited which had been contracted to manufacture the specialised small tractors and trailers for garbage collection in small towns handed over the equipment to UN-HABITAT. The agency in turn immediately dispatched the equipment to the seven towns participating in the first phase of the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative. The project towns are Homa Bay and Kisii in Kenya, Bukoba and Muleba in Tanzania, and Kyotera and Nyendo Ssenyange (a satellite town of Masaka Municipality) in Uganda, as well as the border town of Mutukula on the Uganda / Tanzania border. The project towns were represented at the hand over ceremony by the mayor of Kisii Councillor Samuel Nyangeso and Councillor Gabriel Kagaruki from the Bukoba Municipal Council. Mayor Nyangeso said the two tractors and trailers provided for his town will enhance the ability of the council to collect garbage, particularly in peri-urban settlements which have been difficult to access. “These tractors are designed to access narrow roads, and will enable us to deliver garbage collection services to all areas of Kisii Municipality, including the low income areas.” Thanking UN-HABITAT for arranging training for drivers and technicians before the equipment was delivered, Councillor Kagaruki said this will ensure maximum utilization through proper usage and maintenance of the of the equipment. Ndume Engineering was appointed by UN-HABITAT to develop tailor-made garbage collection equipment, referred to as the “Ndume Little Pick-up”, for small towns. Development of the Chinese two wheeler tiller into a pickup was completed in May 2008 and subsequently on site training of operators and technicians from the project towns on the operations and maintenance of the system was conducted in Gilgil by the manufacturer. The Ndume Little Pickup has a flat deck body with a very low loading height. The flat body carries eight bins of waste which can be lifted onto or off the pick-up by hand. In six of the seven towns, these Little Pickups will be used to collect waste bins from businesses and residential premises and transfer them into large containers or low loading height trailers, which will then be transported to the disposal site. The Lake Victoria Region Water and Sanitation Initiative is a joint project between UN-HABITAT, the Governments of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and the Secretariat of the East African Community. It supports small towns in the Lake Victoria region to attain the water and sanitation target of the Millennium Development Goals. Its objectives are to improve the water supply and sanitation coverage for the poor and to reduce the pollution of the lake from these towns. Under the Initiative, UN-HABITAT is providing capacity building and grant support to seven towns to rehabilitate existing facilities and to improve local capacity for operations, maintenance and service delivery. Last month, UN-HABITAT hosted Water Ministers from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi in Nairobi to review progress in implementation of the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative and establish arrangements for expansion of the Programme to Rwanda and Burundi. |
