Many residents in Kamembe town, Rusizi district in the Western Province of Rwanda are still unaware that it is prohibited to dump garbage in trenches.

Emeritha Mukahigiro is a rice retailer and operates near a trench. She says that garbage is thrown into the trench by people especially those from market places.

She says: “You find small bottles, banana coils, boxes, maize cobs, and many other things lying in the trench. This is usually done by careless people who passby,”

Mukahigiro informed people that it is not a brave behavior to throw garbage in every place saying that it creates poor hygiene. She asked concerned authorities to put in place penalities meant for such people who ignore public sanitation and environmental conservation.

The management of Kamembe town cautioned those who throw garbage in trenches, informing them that they will face serious penalties by paying a certain amount.

Rukazambuga Gilbert, the executive secretary of Kamembe sector said, “People who throw garbage in trenches are classified as people who don not conserve the environment. They are order to pay a fine of about 50.000 Rwandan francs.”

Trenches are meant to direct water in the rainy season, in a place where there are many houses, when water comes without being directed to a certain place destroys houses. When garbage is thrown in these trenches, it makes it difficult for them to direct water well which might be dangerous to certain buildings nearby.

Trenches can become a hatching ground for insects like mosquitoes which cause malaria.