PAY LITTLE MORE ATTENTION TO THE ENVIRONMENT

Rain is a blessing but not in Kampala! Moving down town after a heavy down pour can be a scary experience if you are not a Ugandan. Ugandans are so used to this kind of life. The drainage channels and potholes in and around this city just overflow and cover up some roads. This is largely due to our carelessness.

 This can be proven by the kind of rubbish that fills up those channels; it is not soil and leaves from trees but used airtime cards, water bottles, polythene papers of all types and sizes, tissue, foil and all sorts of organic and inorganic rubbish.
 

We have played our blame game quite smartly. Everyone is blaming is government and government has also not got tired of doing nothing about it.

 

 So now I ask myself, what do we do? If we decide to keep quiet about it people will drown not in lakes but drainage channels. What a pity! And if we want to do something what should it be? I just thought of a few simple solutions and here they are;

First, we should all have self discipline; the kind of discipline that is not instilled in you by a teacher or parent but by yourself as a result of having a clear and smart conscience.

 

 Teach yourself to be the first friend of the environment where you work, study, stay, shop, sport or spend your leisure time. If you love being in clean places then do not litter. Assume everyone else does what you do. In a situation like that imagine if you littered and everyone else is doing the same, what kind of environment will you live in?

Make good use of the trash cans around town they are not for beautification. If you for example took water in the middle of town it would be polite for you to move with the empty bottle until you find a rubbish can where you can safely dispose it. If you take water regularly consider using water bottles because these can be refilled and kept longer.

 

For those who have a sweet tooth, it is not a crime. Buy as many sweets as you please but remember to keep those papers and packs in your hand bag until you reach home and burn them or properly dispose them. Those wrappers may seem so small but imagine, if you eat five sweets a day, how many sweets will you have eaten in a period of one year? The total may be good enough to block a channel in town. 

 

For those who love to shop and derive their joy in carrying so many polythene bags it is high time you learn to carry a bag. Bags carry lots of stuff and can be recurrently. Why then should you use ten polythene bags which may give you a hard time to dispose? Alternatively consider burning those polythene bags immediately after use or better still keep them and use them next time. 

 

Whereas people have a responsibility in this action, the companies that manufacture those products should pay some attention to where their products are disposed after use. To this end water bottling companies and supermarkets with or without branded polythene bags should work out a solution to this problem. 

 

We have seen them do a great job in their corporate social responsibility; I suggest they concentrate on how to make the environment better since it is the world’s issue of the time.

 

To be honest, there is no school of thought that is required to concoct a theory in order to achieve this end. It is solely common sense and a proper conscience.