Week 7 - Maribou Storks in their Natural Habitat

Location: Kampala

This week, as part of our SPH curriculum, we had the opportunity to visit the Kitezi landfill, only to find the second most common thing found after garbage is in fact, the Maribou Stork. These large mysterious birds have strangely fascinated me since day one of this adventure. However, after this site visit, I'm even more enchanted by their impact on society. These giant birds have in the past been a mixed blessing, in fact, many of our power-outages were directly attributed to their landing on the wires and causing damage. However, it appears that the birds also serve another purpose --they eat the rotting meat at the landfill, reducing the smell and improving the general sanitation at the site by eliminating this waste product.

After having to provide a detailed explanation on the pathways of untreated sewage and trash, I came to realize how complex the process of waste management really is. We really take for granted how much work, manpower, engineering goes into treatment of sewage water and garbage disposal. It's easy to dismiss our garbage and never think about it again, but the sad reality is that there is a whole other component to garbage that we don't even think about. Instead of simply being compacted and buried as I had previously imagined, there is apparently an entire leachate treatment process that manages and disposes the liquid residue from the rotting garbage. Furthermore, since there are little to no recycling facilities in Uganda, the burden of sorting garbage for reusable parts falls onto the scavengers who collect salvageable materials. Scavengers survive off the rubbish and debris that gets tossed into the landfill by salvaging metal and plastic scraps and reselling them. None of these people, however, wear protective clothing like boots or gloves, which is shocking considering the amount of dangerous materials that we found at the site. There was illegal medical waste including opened syringes, razors, and other hazardous materials. I was concerned for my personal safely even while wearing closed-toed shoes. It's unimaginable how people avoid dangerous infections and illnesses without the proper equipment.

In addition to viewing the Kitezi landfill, we also visited the main sewage treatment facility only to learn about the extensive engineering that's involved in creating such a under-valued service. I think it takes losing running water for about a week to really appreciate indoor plumbing and the processes necessary to carry out the job.