Mbale’s food environment has its own challenges. With one of the biggest central markets of the country, it lacks a good governance structure and suffers from infrastructural problems. Food supply in Mbale is known to surpass food demand, but also producing a lot of (biodegradable) waste. The Afrifood project in Mbale aims to transform the city’s urban food environment: it addresses the systemic underpinnings of food insecurity and environmental impact, to lead to real transformation. AfriFOODlinks views urban food environments as the key arena for improving nutrition and reducing environmental impact in cities. The project promotes a circular economy and reduces organic waste in Mbale Central Market. The project also works on ttransforming Mbale Central Market and the City Abattoir into a centre for safe, nutritious, and sustainable food for the city. Within this project, Rikolto works together with Mbale City Council, CONSENT, Food Rights Alliance (FRA) and SHONA to tackle those challenges in Mbale’s food environment.
According to the Mbale City Development Plan, about 500 tonnes of garbage are generated in Mbale city every day and most of it is biodegradable, collected from food waste generated from individual gardens, markets, restaurants and a few supermarkets and stationery shops. Mbale City Council’s per capita garbage production is over 10,000 tones and only collects 7000 tonnes leaving a deficit of 3000 tonnes in communities. Indiscriminate dumping of garbage is a common phenomenon which makes it difficult for proper collection and loading leading to tonnes of garbage heaps at some collection points and along roadsides.
Following numerous discussions on sustainable management of biodegradable waste, resolutions on partnerships on compositing and waste recycling have routinely been registered. In regards to this, Mbale District Council, through a proposed partnership with Rikolto Uganda, has identified about 10 acres of land within Mbale City for the set-up of an incubation center which will also house a waste processing facility for biodegradable waste management. In addition, high prevalence of food borne illnesses and food born intoxication associated with food safety challenges have been raised in the Good Food Parliament and GoodFood Council (two multistakeholder platforms discussing issues related to Mbale’s food environment), as well as tabled for discussion at the city executive meetings. The risk of food contamination is significantly associated with handling food in unhygienic conditions.
Mbale Central Market (MCM) is centrally a food business hub that accommodates and services thousands of consumers and traders and other stakeholders on a daily basis. As one of the epicenters of food business, a big percentage of consumers eat food vended in and around the market given its accessibility, availability and affordability. However,food safety challenges in MCM have mainly been associated with poor food handling practices, poor hygiene and sanitation among the vendors and the unsuitability of the vending sites (food preparation and eating places) respectively as they don’t comply with the vending sites’ standards. In addition, limited enforcement of the existing food safety related policies, regulations and standards has also been reported in Mbale city and Uganda at large, posing a risk to food safety challenges such as increased prevalence of food borne diseases, food fraud and hampering cross border food trade.
The City Abattoir is a government facility that was established in 1960 to serve the people of Mbale. Overtime, with limited commitment towards its renovation, the facility has dilapidated and poses a food safety risk to the people of Mbale. The City abattoir conditions, including inadequate water services, poor drainage and hygiene, despair of roofs and walls, limited storage and sanitary facilities, are a health risk not only to the city abattoir employees but to the entire city. Furthermore,the abattoir employees have inadequate knowledge of food safety and handling practices. This is notable by animals being slaughtered on the floor in unhygienic places and poor waste disposal within the abattoir premises. Due to the degenerated state and limited security of the city abattoir, many traders and abattoir employees have abandoned the facility, and this could threaten the food security within Mbale city.
The work has improved hugely after Rikolto stepped in. Ever since we have been constructing the walls of the abatoire, the safety of the animals could be guaranteed. This increased the number of animals that have been brought for slaughtering.
We are constructing and renovating several sights in Mbale to improve its infrastructure:
Additionally, we are co-investing and setting up a waste recycling facility. This facility will use functional biodegradable waste recycling technologies such as Black Soldier Fly (BSF) farming technology, vermicomposting. It’s set up to reduce the biodegradable waste from the main market and the city at an already identified site.
Promoting a circular economy and reducing organic waste
The biodegradable waste in MCM is known as a good raw material for organic manure that can be a sustainable and healthier alternative for synthetic fertilizers. Therefore, the biodegradable waste at Mbale Central Market provides an opportunity for organic manure processing.
Mbale District and Rikolto will partner with an identified private entity (private sector) to do the actual waste processing of the sorted biodegradable waste into organic manure at Bukunde Centre and its marketing using a clearly defined business model.
Rikolto will:
At the market, biodegradable waste will be collected and sorted by traders and hygiene market teams. Afterwards, a private entity contracted by the city council will transport the waste to the Bukonde processing plant, a place gazetted by the Mbale District Council and approved by the District Executive Committee meeting. The private entity will then process, package and sell the organic manure to the farmers, which also promotes sustainable urban farming among the city dwellers.
The proposed interventions also focus on building the capacity of the target food handlers. An inception meeting will be organised with different stakeholders to introduce them to the project. Together with the technical project team, city authorities and market leadership of cooked food department, we will then map and profile 150 primary participants selected from the 600 registered cooked food vendors in Mbale Central Market. The selected participants will be subjected to a baseline survey to have an understanding of their current knowledge, attitudes and practices in regard to food safety and food waste management. Following the baseline, the participants will be trained and mentored on optimal food handling, food safety and food waste management and recycling.
In addition, aprons and head gears will be provided to each participant and their assistants during food handling, preparation and serving. In a situation where the infrastructure of involved activities is not suitable, we will cooperate with city authorities to invest in their construction, reinforcement or renovation. Furthermore, the project proposes to extend the distribution of clean and portable water to the selected vending sites.
.jpg)