Just days after I published an article urging the Juba City Council to move beyond technology and focus on behavioural change, news emerged that 17 residents and shop owners had been arrested in Munuki for violating sanitation regulations. Three of them, including a pregnant woman and two nursing mothers, were released on humanitarian grounds.
The city announced that violators would face immediate arrest and prosecution, while urging block committees to encourage residents and traders to keep their surroundings clean.
These arrests did not surprise me. In fact, they reinforce the concern I raised in my previous article: when a city faces a serious sanitation crisis, the temptation is to enforce the law rather than address the deeper causes of the problem.
Arrests make headlines. Fines generate revenue. But neither answers the most important question: Why do people continue dumping garbage in open spaces, sometimes shortly after a collection truck has passed?
The answer lies not simply in the behaviour of residents, but also in the reliability of waste collection, the accessibility of disposal facilities and the extent to which communities are involved in managing their surroundings.
The problem with punishment
The City Council’s decision to enforce sanitation regulations is not without legal justification. The 2025 anti-waste bylaw grants the municipality authority to penalise illegal dumping, while the JICA-supported project is helping establish a fee-based waste collection system.
The problem is not enforcement itself. It is treating enforcement as the first response rather than the last resort.
Imagine a resident who steps outside at nine in the evening with a bag of garbage. The collection truck has already passed, or perhaps the resident does not know when it is coming. The nearest designated collection point may be two kilometres away.
What options does that resident have?
Leaving the garbage at home may create health and sanitation problems. Dumping it in an open space is unacceptable. Yet if the collection system is unreliable and alternatives are inaccessible, the resident is being asked to comply with rules that the city has not made practical to follow.
This does not excuse illegal dumping. It does, however, raise an important question about fairness and responsibility.
When the system fails to provide a reasonable means of disposing of waste, punishing residents without addressing that failure is unlikely to produce lasting results.
The release of the pregnant woman and two nursing mothers on humanitarian grounds also raises concerns about how enforcement affects vulnerable residents. The city must ensure that its approach is proportionate and that residents have adequate opportunities to comply with sanitation regulations.
More importantly, arrest cannot teach people how to dispose of waste properly. Fear may prevent someone from dumping garbage in the presence of a police officer, but it cannot communicate collection schedules, teach waste separation, or provide a rubbish bin outside a household.
Enforcement can stop visible violations. It cannot, on its own, build the habits and attitudes needed to keep a city clean.
Lessons from Rwanda: Culture before enforcement
Some people may point to Rwanda and argue that Kigali is clean because of strict enforcement, including plastic bag restrictions and heavy fines.
That is only part of the story.
Rwanda’s experience with cleanliness is also closely associated with Umuganda, the monthly community work programme in which citizens participate in activities such as cleaning streets, clearing drainage channels and maintaining public spaces.
The significance of Umuganda goes beyond removing garbage. It creates opportunities for people to work together, take responsibility for their surroundings and strengthen relationships within their communities.
Neighbours become partners in a shared responsibility. Community leaders become organisers of collective action rather than simply messengers between residents and government.
This is an important lesson for Juba.
When cleanliness becomes part of community life, people begin to see it not merely as a government instruction but as a responsibility they share with others.
Juba does not need to copy Rwanda’s laws or penalties. It can learn from the importance of community participation while developing an approach that reflects its own social and cultural realities.
Enforcement has a role, but it becomes more effective when citizens understand the rules, have the means to comply, and recognize the importance of protecting public spaces.
From reporting problems to solving them together
In my previous article, I raised concerns about the plan to distribute mobile phones to community Sheikhs.
I still believe the initiative could be useful. However, its success will depend on how the phones are used.
If their only purpose is to report garbage accumulation to the City Council, the initiative will reinforce an approach in which residents identify problems and wait for government to solve them.
A more effective approach would use these phones to mobilise communities and strengthen communication between residents and sanitation services.
Community groups could use them to announce changes in collection schedules, organise neighbourhood clean-up activities, share information about proper waste disposal and encourage friendly competition between neighbourhoods.
They could also help identify households that may need assistance, including those headed by elderly people, persons with disabilities and newly arrived families.
This would turn the phones into tools for community participation rather than simply instruments for reporting violations.
JICA’s solid waste management project in Juba has established a framework for community-based waste collection, with plans to introduce fixed-time, fixed-location collection and charge households approximately 430 South Sudanese pounds per month.
The success of this system will depend on whether residents understand and trust it.
If households are expected to pay for waste collection, they must know when the truck will arrive, where to leave their garbage, and whom to contact when the service fails.
The municipality must also be prepared to respond to complaints and explain service disruptions.
Mobile phones can help build this trust, but only if the collection system itself is reliable.
Three priorities for a cleaner Juba
I would like to offer three practical recommendations to Mayor Christopher Serafino Wani Swaka and the Juba City Council.
1. Establish a reliable waste collection timetable
The City Council should publish a clear collection timetable for every neighbourhood and demonstrate that it can be followed consistently.
Residents should know the day, time and designated location for waste collection.
The timetable should be displayed in markets, shops, community centres, places of worship and other accessible locations. Community Sheikhs and block committees should help communicate the information to residents.
For at least eight weeks, the city should focus on educating residents, providing guidance and issuing warnings rather than imposing fines for ordinary sanitation violations.
This period would give households a reasonable opportunity to understand and adapt to the system.
After eight weeks, the City Council could begin imposing penalties for persistent violations, provided that reliable collection services and accessible disposal facilities are in place.
The objective should be to make compliance practical before making non-compliance costly.
2. Introduce a monthly community clean-up pilot
The City Council should launch a community clean-up programme in three neighbourhoods.
There is no need to adopt Rwanda’s mandatory Umuganda model. Juba can develop an approach that reflects its own social, cultural and administrative realities.
The proposal is simple: one designated day each month, during which community Sheikhs, block committees, residents and traders work together to clean public spaces and clear drainage channels.
The City Council should provide basic tools, waste collection, and transport support.
The pilot should also assess community participation and whether the cleaned areas remain clean.
The purpose is not simply to remove garbage. It is to demonstrate that collective responsibility can produce visible results.
Once the pilot has demonstrated its effectiveness, the City Council can expand the programme to other neighbourhoods.
3. Reinvest part of sanitation fines in neighbourhood improvements
A portion of the revenue collected from sanitation fines should be reinvested in improving sanitation services in the affected neighbourhoods.
Residents should be able to see the results through the installation of rubbish bins, the clearing of drainage channels, and improved waste collection points.
The municipality should publish simple reports showing how much revenue has been collected and how much has been spent on sanitation improvements.
This would strengthen public confidence in the enforcement system and demonstrate that penalties are intended to improve public services rather than simply generate revenue.
Punishment without visible improvement risks creating resentment. Enforcement linked to better services can encourage cooperation and strengthen public accountability.
A clean Juba requires its people’s participation.
Mayor Christopher Serafino Wani Swaka has demonstrated his commitment to a cleaner Juba. The arrest of 17 residents is one expression of that commitment.
However, the city must now move beyond the immediate appearance of action and focus on the long-term results residents need.
A clean city cannot be built through arrests and fines alone. It requires reliable services, public education, community leadership, and a shared sense of responsibility.
Juba’s real sanitation transformation will begin when a mother knows where to dispose of her household waste, when a community Sheikh can inform residents that the collection truck will arrive in twenty minutes, and when neighbours come together to clean their streets and take pride in the results.
I remain a supporter of the Mayor’s commitment to a cleaner Juba. Precisely because I support that objective, I urge him and the City Council to give greater attention to the systems and community participation that will make it achievable.
Let us put the handcuffs aside long enough to establish a reliable collection timetable. Let us complement fines with community meetings, civic education and visible improvements in sanitation services.
The responsibility for keeping Juba clean must be shared between the City Council, community leaders, businesses and residents.
The writer is a researcher and policy analyst based in Juba. He can be reached via sebiternest@gmail.com.
The views expressed in ‘opinion’ articles published by Radio Tamazuj are solely those of the writer. The veracity of any claims made is the responsibility of the author, not Radio Tamazuj.
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