This presentation by Stephen Bright Sakwa, of Tree Adoption Uganda, features the 'Waste management for flood control' project which is being implemented in Bwaise, an urban slum in Kampala, Uganda. It focuses on tackling floods and creating livelihoods in informal settlements. It showcases how the community has been trained to manage waste appropriately and make valuable products out of it so that it doesn't end up in drainage channels to cause floods that devastates the community. This presentation features as part of the Marketplace area of the 15th International Conference on Community-based Adaptation (CBA15). The event takes place online from 14-18 June, 2021. More details: https://cba15.iied.org/atrium

1. Innovating to improve the ownership,
sustainability and multi-actor nature of
community-based adaptation

2. Waste management for flood control project in Bwaise, Uganda
Causes of flooding:
1. Indiscriminate disposal of waste due to owner pays system
2. Inadequate drainage channels

3. Impacts of flooding which mainly affect women

4. What we are doing: multi-stakeholder engagement
Local government/municipal council: advocacy workshops to expedite the improvement and
construction of drainage channels

5. Community: attaching value to proper waste management
Awareness creation and training groups to make valuable products from waste

6. Training in sorting waste and making valuable products like briquettes for home
consumption and income generation. Plastics are also sold to recyclers for income

7. Community clean-ups for social solidarity and collective action to solve local problems locally

8. Private sector engagement
Private companies dealing in recycling and briquette manufacturing have been introduced to the
community and buying collected plastic as well as char from the groups

9. Challenges faced:
 Some activities were delayed due to COVID-19
 Difficult to engage men in waste management
 Lack of cooperation between some neighbours
 Limited trust between the community and local council

10. Lessons learned:
 There is a lot of knowledge in the community; along the way we had to change
the project design to suit the community needs.
 Not everyone can be convinced to invest time in waste management. It is better
to create few groups which specialize in that; this also increases their economies
of scale hence more attractive to invest in.
 There is huge motivation in the communities to change their own reality.
 It is important to engage the whole ecosystem in community based adaptation as
it creates linkages to solve problems which seem complex with one actor.

11. Thank you!