LET us face it: the environment is not in good hands! Not only have environmental activists under the Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) said so during policy debates, the recent support by the environment minister, Maria Mutagamba to lift the ban imposed on plastic bags, says as much. This offers the best evidence of the extent to which Mutagamba has depicted a perverted understanding of her responsibilities.
When finance minister Syda Bbumba imposed a ban in the budget speech in June last year, environmentalists thought she had contributed a lot of mileage to Mutagamba’s cause. But what followed was baffling. Mutagamba rose and opposed the ban! What has been the result? The enforcement of the ban imposed on plastic bags, according to Bashir Twesigye, a senior researcher under ACODE has weakened.
While Bbumba gave a grace period of six months for the makers to clear their stocks, the ban that was supposed to be effective January 1 was pushed to April 1. Now less than two months remain and the public is still wondering whether the long- awaited ban will come to pass. Dr. Aryamanya Mugisha, the director of the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) says they are ready to bite without fear or favour. “For us we are ready to start enforcing the ban. It is long overdue given the public outcry on plastic bags,” says Mugisha.
While answering media questions, Mutagamba argued that she was in favour of waste management. This, Mutagamba says, will provide a solution to indiscriminate disposal of waste and provide employment. “Instead of saying do not do this or ban that, for me waste management is the solution in order to create employment.”
Mutagamba said she has been working with the private sector around Luzira to engage local communities to engage in proper waste management. She claims this approach is working and that the next stage was for the Local Government to take up the challenge.
She also said two factories were recycling plastics and that another three will soon open recycling projects: “You may ask me how the materials are going to be collected. Nakumatt has offered 60 litter bins to help collect litter on the streets. We will have people monitoring on the streets so that we can teach people to sort waste.” She adds, “People will gradually learn and waste management will help provide employment to some of the unemployed youth.” This has attracted a stinging attack from ACODE with Bashir pointing out that all this is part of delaying tactics that will help protect the makers of plastics to continue making dirty money.
One good option for the minister was to simply keep quiet if she had opposing views on plastics, according to Bashir. How can ministers who hold different portfolios push for the ban on plastics and Mutagamba who is supposed to make the environmentalists’ voice louder oppose it, Bashir wonders.
It is difficult to imagine that the public that wants something done on plastic bags is relying on Mutagamba to advise President Yoweri Museveni on plastics. “What sort of advice do you expect Mutagamba to give the President on kaveera? Whose agenda does the minister articulate—NEMA’s agenda or her agenda, Bashir asks.
Her arguments are full of holes. She says she supports lifting of the ban because the ban will deprive people of employment. This is something politicians want to parrot and please President Museveni. But Mutagamba is only looking at one side of the coin.
Does she know how many people are going to suffer from loss of employment when the soil is choked? Or how many people will be exposed to food insecurity and loss of livelihoods? Even growers of marijuana, going by Mutagamba’s reasoning, would be off the hook by saying that they earn money from the illicit trade and provide employment to thousands!
As a way out, there are enterprises like paper bag making that are promising to offer employment to thousands of youth, women and children. So many people like Jabir Luswata, a paper bag maker are exporting their products to Rwanda while their motherland is choking with plastics! The minister is playing in the hands of the plastic manufacturers.
First, the manufacturers used to say that they had heavily invested in the trade and needed to recover their money. Two decades down the road such an argument can no longer hold water. The plastic bag investors have shifted from being defensive and are now saying that they will contribute to the solution if there is a waste management policy. But this is a long-term strategy and the time for playing ping pong with kaveera ran out yesterday. Ban it and then work on a policy for waste management. This will, among others, help linking agriculture and health with waste through creation of organic manure and a clean environment. When waste becomes wealth, thousands will also benefit from employment.
What legacy is Mutagamba going to leave behind? The gain from plastics is like a mirage seen on a tarmac road on a hot day. It disappears as you advance towards it. Who is going to restrain Mutagamba from leading this country into chasing mirages?
The writer is a journalist
