AS WE STEADILY MAKE our way to another National Cleaning Day, please let’s do some things differently?

I am speaking to ALL UGANDANS here.

The exercise started out seeming random and was highly disorganised. After two sessions, there were small improvements visible to all that can become big and significant if we all agree to Be Serious about it.

At the last one, for instance, some of us did not settle for doing token cleaning only right outside our doors – we already do that quite regularly.

Instead, we headed up the road to a neighbour’s gate where I had noticed a heavy build up of silt clogging the drains there.

The resolve with which we attacked it raised the interest of a couple of other neighbours already doing some cleaning nearby, and before long we were a large enough group to make a massive difference.

Eventually, after the residents at the property had sent their security guard to check what we were really doing, they also turned up and joined in. They were slightly embarrased but we did not push that agenda.

More of us can do more of this. All of us should do much more than just cleaning, though, especially the people in charge of the planning process.

After the first rounds of National Cleaning Days we raised worries (and dismay) that the garbage we had dug out of the ground and trenches and our compounds, and piled up by our various roadsides had stood there uncollected for too long afterwards.

Even after it had been collected, we had the niggles about its proper disposal – especially considering that just months ago the Kiteezi landfill (Kampala’s biggest and most famous) had imploded in many senses.

As usual, though, once the garbage went out of site, we relaxed. After the day ended, we forgot about cleaning.

I see that in my neighbourhood every day – in front of homes that cost billions of Uganda Shillings to buy, and tens of millions to rent on a monthly basis.

Even in front of those that might cost a bit less but then get their value lowered even further.

This week I found this:

Believe it or not, right in front of that wall and massive signage was this:

My life is sometimes like a comedy skit…

All efforts around making the National Cleaning Day successful need to start on the evening of each National Cleaning Day.

This time round we should have the authorities responsible – in all villages, towns, cities, and districts – use that evening to encourage all Ugandans to take the day seriously.

Showcase how clean the neighbourhoods are and make people both happy and proud of the work they will have done for themselves in their own homes.

Be Serious with that leadership in exactly the way Solomon Serwanja, LC1 Chairperson of Bamutakudde Village, is demonstrating every single day.

Garbage collection after National Cleaning Day would be easier, for instance, if people were taught how and why they should separate waste within their homes before sending it out for disposal.

It is quite simple to do so – which some other economies have proven for about sixty years now – and we presumably have enough Ugandans out here with university degrees that can work this out.

Separating waste within your home allows the sensible ecosystems of upcycling and recyling to exist and thrive. It also makes it less difficult to manage large, public landfills. PLUS, it can allow another enterprise to grow – composting and manure – which helps agriculture overall in many ways.

A couple of months ago I visited a glass upcyling and recycling facility in Arusha (Tanzania) whose biggest problem is the availability of raw materials – glass waste. We also have at least one here in Uganda – Good Glass Uganda being one of my favourite – and, again, they need more glass.

Guess what item our waste disposal companies refuse to take from our homes to the landfill? Glass.

Guess what other item they also frequently reject and yet is an essential item in developing compost and manure? Vegetative waste.

Just a week ago I read a story that included the sentence, “A notoriously stubborn agricultural waste product, rice husk is being repurposed as a sturdy and resilient construction material.”

That was followed by, “Previously viewed as a waste product and even pollutant, rice husks are now attracting attention for their potential as a versatile, sustainable construction material.”

I won’t even go into the numbers. There are tens of thousands of Ugandans better educated than me who can do so and publish elaborate disserations about such things.

Sadly, very few of those tens of thousands of Ugandans seem to be clever enough to do waste separation in their homes or even keep the gates and driveways of their billion-shilling houses clean for longer than that one day the government told them to use.

And so, if we are waiting for the government to keep making us clean up and do sensible things, then the government needs to ramp up the messaging, awareness and education to run from right after the last National Cleaning Day to the start of the next one.

In fact, start by re-naming it and removing the word ‘Day’.

Make it just ‘National Cleanup Uganda’ so we do it all the time and every day.