Waste management is shared responsibility, Nairobi residents told

 

Nairobi City County Chief Officer incharge of Environment Hibrahim Otieno has urged Nairobi residents to be responsible for the waste they generate, noting that waste management is not only a County responsibility but a shared responsibility by the waste generator and the County Government.

“The biggest challenge we face as a county is illegal dumping. We need to get to a point where people are responsible for their waste by dumping the waste they generate in waste collection designated areas set up by the City County” Said Chief Hibrahim.

Hibrahim said that under Governor Sakaja’s leadership, the County has for the first time acquired 61 number of fleet amongst them 27 trucks for solid waste management and 10 new skip loaders and skips to boost garbage collection, making it the highest number of waste collection trucks ever acquired by the County.

The County Chief Officer went on to mention the recruitment of the 3,500 green army officers currently spread out in all the 85 wards in Nairobi, as a key achievement by Nairobi Governor Sakaja Johnson, adding that the last employment of cleaners was done in 1980s.

To help address the issue of waste in the neighbourhoods Otieno mentioned that the County engages closely with environmental Community Based Organisations in waste collection where the county provides cleaning tools and trucks to transport waste collected to the final disposal point.

“Community Based Organisations dealing with waste are part of the County. We give them recognition letters to enable them do their work. We support them whenever they want to carry out any clean up exercise and also link them with waste recyclers. In addition we provide red soil and tree seedlings for the youth willing to undertake tree planting intiatives.” added Otieno.

Otieno said that in future waste will be of more value where it will be used for income generation by creating jobs in recycling industry thereby making a positive impact to society and the environment.

By Christine Muchira