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 aregenerated in Mbale city every day and most of it is bio-degradable, collectedfrom food waste generated from individual gardens, markets, restaurants and afew supermarkets and stationery shops. Mbale city council’s per capita garbageproduction is over 10,000 tones and only collects 7000 tonnes leaving a deficitof 3000 tonnes in communities. Indiscriminate dumping of garbage is a commonphenomenon which makes it difficult for proper collection and loading leadingto tonnes of garbage heaps at some collection points and along roadsides.
Following numerous discussions on sustainablemanagement of biodegradable waste, resolutions on partnerships on compositingand waste recycling have routinely been registered. In regards to this, Mbale Districtcouncil, through a proposed partnership with Rikolto Uganda, has identified about 10 acres of land within MbaleCity for the set-up of an incubationcenter which will also house a waste processing Facility for bio degradable waste management In addition,high prevalence of food borne illnesses and food born intoxication associatedwith food safety challenges have been raised in the Good Food Parliament and GoodFood Council (two multistakeholder platforms discussing issues related toMbale’s food environment), as well as tabled for discussion at the cityexecutive meetings. The risk of food contamination is significantly associatedwith handling food in unhygienic conditions.
Mbale Central Market (MCM) is centrally a foodbusiness hub that accommodates and services thousands of consumers and tradersand other stakeholders on a daily basis. As one of the epicenters of foodbusiness, a big percentage of consumers eat food vended in and around themarket given its accessibility, availability and affordability. However,food safety challenges in MCM have been registered mainly associated with poorfood handling practices, poor hygiene and sanitation among the vendors and the unsuitability ofthe vending sites (food preparation and eating places) respectively as theydon’t comply with the vending sites’ standards. In addition, limitedenforcement of the existing food safety related policies, regulations andstandards has also been reported in Mbale City and Uganda at large posing arisk to food safety challenges such as increased prevalence of food bornediseases, food fraud and hampering cross border food trade.
The City Abattoir is a government facility that wasestablished in 1960 to serve the people of Mbale. Overtime, with limitedcommitment towards its renovation, the facility has dilapidated and poses afood safety risk to the people of Mbale. The City abattoir conditions,including inadequate water services, poor drainage and hygiene, despair ofroofs and walls, limited storage and sanitary facilities, are a health risk notonly to the city abattoir employees but to the entire city. Furthermore,the abattoir employees have inadequate knowledge of food safety and handlingpractices. This is notable by animals being slaughtered on the floor inunhygienic places and poor waste disposal within the abattoir premises. Due tothe degenerated state and limited security of the city abattoir, many tradersand abattoir employees have abandoned the facility, and this could threaten thefood 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.
Improving infrastructure in Mbale Central Market and in the City Abattoir
We are constructing and renovating several sights in Mbale to improve its infrastructure:
· Improving central market food stalls: we are improving the food market stalls for beef, fruits and vegetables in Mbale city central market. The expected output is to have 150 ‘smart stalls refurbished to meet the required standard for fruits and vegetables stalls.
· Construction of a shade for cooking at Mbale central market: under the supervision of the city engineer, we are constructing one shade for cooking at Mbale central Market for the Food Vendors in the market.
· Improving the food courts in Mbale central market: we are improving two designated eating places in the main market creating a conducive and attractive eating environment for customers and consumers.
· Improving Mbale city abattoir: Rikolto will re-construct the fence and do general renovation of the existing city abattoir structure, including painting.
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 shall 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 shall:
· provide safety gears to the waste sorters and supply waste bins and other relevant tools at the different points of the markets;
· build capacity of the traders and sorters on biodegradable waste identification and sorting as well as optimal waste disposal by giving trainings;
· build capacity of farmers by trainings on organic farming;
· create community awareness on waste management and organic farming;
· facilitate joint support supervision and monitoring, and stakeholders’ engagements related to the intervention.
The city council will contract a private entity to undertake general waste collection, transportation and overall management whom the project shall leverage on to transport the sorted biodegradable waste to Bukonde processing plant.
At the market, the biodegradable waste shall be collected and sorted by the traders and hygiene market teams contracted by the City authorities and later transported by the private entity contracted by the City authorities to the processing center, a place that has been identified and gazetted by the Mbale District council and Approved by the District Executive committee Meeting as the appropriate for biodegradable waste processing. The private entity shall then process, package and sell the manure to the farmers. The availability of organic manure shall also enable promotion of organic and sustainable urban farming among the city dwellers.
Training vendors on food safety
The proposed interventions shall focus on building the capacity of the target food handlers and the authorities on optimal food handling and food safety. An inception meeting shall be organized targeting the different stakeholders so as to explain the nature of the project intervention. The project shall then map and profile 150 primary participants selected from the 600 registered cooked food vendors in MCM. The selection of the 150 primary participants shall jointly be done by the technical project team, city authorities and market leadership in charge of cooked food department in reference to the set and agreed criteria. The selected participants shall 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 shall be trained, mentored and coached on optimal food handling, food safety and food waste management and recycling.
In addition, each of the participants and their assistants shall be provided with aprons and head gear as a recommended protective gear during food handling, preparation and serving. In a situation where the infrastructure in the premises where cooked food is being prepared and served is not suitable, the project shall work with the city authorities to invest in their construction/reinforcement and or renovation hence making them suitable to host cooked food vendors within MCM. Similarly, the project proposes to extend clean and portable water to the selected vending sites. Additionally, the project shall also work together with the city authorities to provide food waste bins to enable the optimal collection of assorted food waste which shall provide raw material for the waste recycling processing plant in Bukunde center.
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