Last week, Sara Neuburg, Richard David Lee, and Therese Schwarzböck took part in the project’s final dissemination activities and training sessions as part of APPEAR CPUg | Clean and Prosperous Uganda. These events marked the culmination of four years of collaborative research and were designed to engage stakeholders from a wide range of sectors across the country.

The week began with a lecture series entitled “Unlocking Uganda’s Waste Management Potential.” Members of the Vienna University of Technology team presented to an engaged and diverse audience of students from Makerere University and Mbarara University of Science & Technology. The presentations covered topics including the optimisation of industrial composting, environmental microplastic contamination, and the potential use of residues from organic waste treatment as a partial substitute for coal in Uganda’s cement industry.

The CPUg team then travelled to Imvepi Refugee Settlement in the West Nile sub-region, near the borders with South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There, the team worked directly with local farmers, stakeholders involved in fecal sludge management, and representatives from the public sector. The training focused on WASH best practices, soil fertility, fecal sludge-derived composts and soil conditioners, and ways to combine these approaches to improve agricultural yields more sustainably. An additional focus was placed on strengthening acceptance of fecal sludge-based products in farming.

A heartfelt thank-you to everyone who contributed to making these events so successful. We are very grateful for the strong participation, the valuable exchange, and the excellent collaboration throughout.