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Rapid population growth, and increasing commercial and industrial activities around Kampala, continue
to strain the provision of waste management services. There is an increase in the volume of waste that is
generated, the bulk of which is disposed of into the local environment. The waste, which pollutes water,
has in the past been subjected to natural purification by plants and microbes in the wetlands before it is
discharged into the
Murchison Bay
. The efficiency of the wetlands system to treat wastewater has been
lowered due to large scale draining for farmland and settlement (Kansiime and Van Bruggen 2001).
Wastewater entering Murchison Bay includes partially treated effluent from Bugolobi Sewerage Treatment
Works as well as uncollected solid waste and wastewater discharged from slums, the Luzira prison complex
and markets, 40 per cent of which have no pre-treatment facilities (Kizito 1986). The disposals of wastewater
and industrial effluent into the wetlands or water systems are potential sources of heavy metal pollution,
some of which ends up in the food chain system (Nyangababo et al. 2005). Besides the pollutants entering
the food chain, drinking water sources for Kampala city, Mukono and Wakiso districts are also affected as
these areas draw their water from Murchison Bay (NWSC 2004).