BUJUMBURA July 12th (ABP) – The Director of Sanitation and Environment within the General Directorate of Environment, Water Resources and Sanitation, Mrs. Jeanne Francine Nkunzimana, urged, on Thursday July 8, 2021 during a an interview she gave to a check by ABP, the producers of drinks packaged in single-use plastic bottles to set up their management plans. Mrs. Nkunzimana indicated that with the goal of establishing a framework for controlling the use of plastic packaging and promoting the use of materials that do not degrade the environment to prevent all kinds of pollution caused by plastic products, an ordinance on implementing measures for the 2018 decree prohibiting the import, manufacture, marketing and use of plastic bags and packaging was signed in October 2020. She added that in that ordinance, it is specified that any natural or legal person who does not comply with the modalities of management and disposal of plastic waste after use is punished with a fine of one hundred thousand to five million Burundian francs. It is also stipulated in the decree of August 8, 2018 that plastic waste, bottles and flasks are returned to the supplier who ensures their storage, recycling or recovery. However, the implementation of those measures remains pending and it has been revealed that the empty bottles constitute a threat to the environmental protection.
The Director of the Environment reported that meetings were held for producers who use the flasks in order to ask them to come together to see in what angle they can act to set up a joint management plan for the vials. Because, she explained, if each one collects separately, it cannot give a good result. So it was recommended to get organized to put together a management plan for single-use vials that the Ministry in charge of the Environment will popularize to the public.
Consumers of drinks bottled in plastic packaging are urged to put empty bottles in trash cans while separating biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste for good management.
She appreciated the Mukaza commune’s procedure of putting out public trash in order to keep the city clean. She asked the administrators of other communes to follow in the footsteps of Mukaza commune for the protection of the environment. She also underlined that the protection of the environment concerns everyone; hence the administrative officials and the people are urged to get involved significantly for its protection.