Lango Engineers Call On Lira City Dwellers to Embrace Ways of Turning Waste into Wealth

Lango Engineers Call On City Dwellers to Embrace Ways of Turning Waste into Wealth 

Kampala, Uganda : The Uganda Institution of Proffesional Engineers, Lira Branch is calling on city leaders to encourage the community to find ways to turn waste into wealth, which they believe is the best approach to reducing waste in the city. 

This appeal was made during a grand social evening of Professional Engineers in Lango on 28th December, 2024 which included local government engineers, private sector representatives, students, and academics at Lira Hotel, where they discussed strategies for improving waste management in Lira City.

Under the theme "Transforming Waste into Wealth: Engineering Solutions for a Sustainable Lira City," the team presented their ideas to city leaders, including Mayor Sam Atul and RCC Lawrence Egole, highlighting the potential benefits of this initiative if the community gets on board. 

 Tobby Michael Agwe, an assistant lecturer of civil engineering at Soroti University, delivered the keynote address, explaining to city officials that this initiative could not only generate income for residents but also enhance the overall well-being of the community. 

He pointed out their research indicates a high concentration of lead and cadmium in leachates and vegetables grown around Aler dumping sites, which are above World Health Organisation standards putting the community at health risk.

Citing an example on heavy metals which are toxic to both humans and plants including environmental parameters such soil and water around the dumping sites in Aler, Lira City East division. 

Agwee emphasized that the waste collected in Lira City can be effectively managed and transformed into business opportunities for the community. He noted that a large portion of the waste in Lira is organic, which can be utilised for biogas production and generation of good quality compost which can be used to enhance soil fertility.

He reassured city leaders that as Professional Engineers, they are working on various interventions and innovations for waste management that they are ready to share for implementation. He also encouraged the city to mobilize the community to separate waste during collection to facilitate easier reuse.

Job Obuku, the senior health Inspector shared some of the challenges city is facing in waste management, he called engineers to support with technical skills in managing waste. He quickly urnged lango engineers to come with the intervention at main market to help on waste management. 

He expressed that the current building of Lira main market has no kits installed to manage waste collection and he quickly appealed to engineers to come with immediate intervention. 

After the session, Engineer Sam Opito, Chairperson of the Uganda Professional Institute of Engineers, expressed gratitude to the Lira City officials for participating in the meeting, which yielded valuable insights.

Lira city Mayor Hon. Sam Atul thanked the organisers of the event. 

He said waste management is a collective responsibility of everyone in the city. 

Meawhile, Lawrence Egole RCC Lira who presided as the chief guest, urged to engineers to continue offering professional guidance to local government leaders in Lango as sons and daughters in the field.

"As RCC Lira, you have my full support in this initiative, i will offer our government airtime on radio everyweek to you engineers to always go and teach our people on waste management."He stated

The plenary session was chaired by Eng. Dr. Morish Oleng a lecturer at Kyambogo University, remarkable engineers such Eng. Okuk Owera also attended the social evening meeting.