Hoima City residents on Saturday teamed up with their Mayor Brian Kaboyo to clean untidy places of the urban area.
Dubbed “KEEP HOIMA CITY CLEAN” exercise which is done on every first Saturday of the month was spearheaded by Kaboyo with the chief cleaner being the Mayor of Koboko, Wilson Sanya. They started from Hoima central market at 7:00am.
After cleaning around the central market the residents continued to Persy road, Nsamo road, via Radio Maria corridors, prison road to the city abattoir, Kibati road, Good street and finished with Kiryatete suburb.
The exercise involving sweeping, collecting garbage from trenches and loading on trucks, attracted city dwellers, business community, Education institutions and organisations in Hoima City.
They included Uganda MicroFinance Support Centre, Talk Gadgets, Post Bank, Opportunity Bank ,Bunyoro Kitara-Kingdom, Bwendero Dairy Firm, Hoima School of Nursing and Midwifery, among others.
Sanya who doubles as the national Chairperson for Urban Authorities Association of Uganda (UAAU) appreciated the initiative and encouraged other mayors to embrace the same to ensure cleanliness in their cities.
Kaboyo called upon other stakeholders to always join the cause because a clean environment is everybody’s need.
The Hoima City Secretary for education and health, Achilise Kiiza, said the exercise was launched three months ago to improve public participation in ensuring cleanliness.
This follows a growing concern about lack of capacity to handle massive waste and irregular garbage disposal as the City continues to grapple with a high population after many people migrated to the area to tap opportunities in the oil industry.
The National Population census of 2014, results by Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) indicated that Hoima had the highest population growth rate of 10.7% which is second to Wakiso town with 11.9%.
Statistics indicate that the solid waste generation rate was 150 to 200 tonnes per day in 2016.