The LATAWAMA project, in collaboration with the Uvira municipality, launched awareness-raising and solid waste collection activities on 19 and 20 April. This initiative is part of the LATAWAMA project implemented by the Belgian development agency Enabel and the Lake Tanganyika Authority with funding from the European Union. The objective is to protect the quality of the waters of Lake Tanganyika through the establishment of a solid waste management service.

Launching the activities, Kiza Muhato, Mayor of the city of Uvira, welcomed the initiatives of the LATAWAMA project, which aim at ensuring that the population of Uvira has a healthy environment. He said that waste management is an important challenge for the authorities and the population. He hopes that organic matter will be recycled through composting for agricultural purposes for the good of all and in the interest of the population.

Didier CADELLI, LATAWAMA project manager, recalled that Lake Tanganyika is an invaluable resource for the population of Uvira. “Waste can become an economic opportunity, while the lake is already a means of transport. All this must be protected so that tomorrow you can live in this city,” he said.

The urban coordinator of the environment, Francine Mwangaza Binti Sadiki, said that this project meets some of the obligations of the services dedicated to this work, stressing that these services will benefit from the support of the project to make the city of Uvira clean as well as restore the ecosystems of the coast of Lake Tanganyika. “The shoreline of the lake was considered a public dumping ground with the consequence of disturbing the lake’s biodiversity.

The participants in these activities, made up of administrative officials, members of associations, and the LATAWAMA project team, then collected waste at the Mulongwe and Kalimabenge markets, an operation welcomed by the population of Uvira.

As a prelude to these awareness-raising days, Project LATAWAMA offered the municipality of Uvira personal protective equipment and solid waste collection equipment for three associations already involved in solid waste collection activities.