University of Juba students. (Photo: Lugala Mulai/Eye Radio).

Some students at the University of Juba, in collaboration with the institution’s Waste Management Department, organized an environmental hygiene awareness campaign with the cleaning of the university campus on Saturday.

UoJ Director for Waste Management John Tuol Machot said the program was coined by the students of Petroleum and Geology at the institution.

Mr. Machot said the cleaning campaign was launched since the beginning of July and it has been successful throughout the time up when they invited the media to witness it on Saturday.

“It’s a very important function since it’s all about awareness campaign to clean the campus and the nearby areas that the students live in,” he said, in an interview with Eye Radio.

“We expect students to be doing this every month such that we can create a conducive environment for the students to know that keeping the university clean is part of their work.”

Mr Machot said he hopes students from other departments can join the cleaning campaign to promote a culture of hygiene and eradication of waste pollution.

South Sudan has not developed public services infrastructures such as waste management and recycling, leading to waste clogging the country’s waterways and wetlands and making its way to the Nile River, according to the United Nations Environment Agency.

The chairperson of the Campus Cleaning Program, Augustino Gatluak, said that the students are doing the cleaning voluntarily due to the urge to study in a conducive environment.

Gatluak urged people to desist from littering the environment with plastic bottles and polythene bags, adding that if such waste is not properly disposed of, it will find its way back to the people.

“Today, we organized an environmental awareness and compass cleaning throughout the university, we are doing this voluntarily as students because this is our school and home it gives us everything it gives us the space to study, teachers and a good environment.”

“As students, this is our home. We want to keep it clean. We don’t want it to remain only here in the university but to everyone out there we should keep our environment clean,” he advised.

“This environment is ours and whichever waste we drop, it turns back to us. Please, keep the environment clean. We should not litter waste anyhow there are spaces designated for waste disposal by the university waste management.”

Another student, Tony Paul Maku Paul, said that the main aim is to let South Sudanese know that it is their responsibility to take care of their environment.

Maku called on Juba residents and all South Sudanese to do the same in their homes.

“For us to succeed, we encourage other South Sudanese to volunteer and help their communities. We came up with the idea that media houses should be involved in this activity such that it will not only remain within the university.”

“The students of the University of Juba have sacrificed themselves to care for their environment. That will encourage them to do it in their various schools and homes.”

A damaging investigation released in May 2023 by the government of Central Equatoria State found that most hotels, factories, and businesses in Juba are discharging solid and liquid wastes into the Nile River.

The lucrative businesses located along the Nile were found to be dumping sewage wastes into the river, which many Juba residents drink from and find water for domestic use.

Eye Radio is proud to support environmental conservation by airing and promoting the campaign across our programs.