By Eriah Lule
It is shocking when someone tells you that Uganda has more than 3 dams from which we export electricity to neighboring countries, but it keeps going on and off, more so in the capital city, Kampala.
According to a 2013 report by the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), with over 1.5 million residents who actually increase each day that passes, for reasons best known to them, the 23 megawatts used per hour are not enough for the capital. Have the challenges of the country been reduced? The ever-increasing waste management and improper garbage disposal continue to be a threat to the environment.
It is estimated that per capita, the generation of garbage is one kilogram per day, making it 1500 tons of garbage per year. Despite the annual budget of about 20 billion shillings, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) can only dispose of 40-50 percent of this.
Asadhawaire Aminsi, a first-year student pursing a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, is passionately working towards finding possible solutions to.
With his background in engineering and architecture, Aminsi is developing a thermal plant that is going to use all forms of garbage as raw materials to produce cheap electricity, fertilisers, and ash for making building materials like shingle roofs.
What inspired Aminsi to come up with such a project ?
” I used to see people pay me to collect their rubbish, and in return, the council also contracted me to collect rubbish,” Aminsi said. The 28-year-old once owned a company that used to collect garbage in Bweyogerere, a suburb near the capital city, Kampala.
Although the business no longer existed, Aminsi knew the gold was in garbage, a secret he kept to himself. With such increasing budgets for waste management, he sought how best he could tap into these blessings.
He worked with Atiak Sugar, where he headed the civil department at Bukona Distillery Company in Nwoya District, both in the Northern part of the country. In addition, he worked with Baleke Technical Works and was part of the team that constructed Senana Building and Cico,a Chinese company that constructs roads in Gulu.
With such exposure, he pitched his idea to some friends and former colleagues whom he thought would be of help based on their professions.
“They bought the idea and started the designing process, which we are done with,” he said. ” We want the plant to be established in Ddunga Village in Mukono District, KCCA’s new landfill.”
Aminsi believes that he is going to fight youth unemployment by providing different windows of employment. According to him,they will need workers in the plant who will collect garbage at the different garbage collection points.
The Dean of the School of Business, Vincent Kisenyi, is very pleased with the students’ projects, which aim to combat environmental degradation and improper waste management while also reducing unemployment, the country’s biggest challenge.
The Dean of the School of Business, Vincent Kisenyi, is very pleased with the students’ projects, which aim to combat environmental degradation and improper waste management while also reducing unemployment, the country’s biggest challenge.
“I am always gratified by such projects. As a school, we are willing to support our students to devise the possible ways of helping them implement their projects so they achieve both academically and financially,” he said.
He also said that the university administration is trying to work with different organisations to fund such projects so as to have them executed.
According to him, the school is going to engage with the Faculty of Engineering and Design under their department of Renewable Energy to devise means of helping such projects in a professional manner to benefit society at large.
Born to Asada Were Adam and Suuyi Afiya of Kamuli District, Aminsi was born into a strong Muslim family but joined Uganda Christian University (UCU) to connect fully with God. Despite being a Muslim, he needed to reconnect with his creator, a big element he missed while working.
The third of six siblings, he chose to study Business Administration to better understand business dynamics. He said that there is always a brain behind a successful project in a company,
Aminsi believes in coordinating with the government under its body UEDCL with KCCA to establish this plant . It is through this project that I am thinking of making UCU shine more at the national and international level.hence his inspiration.
