National and County government heads of departments in Nandi County have been sensitised on the need to dispose of electronic waste in the proper way to manage hazardous health risks for humans and the environment.
The training organised by the ICT Authority was attended by close to a hundred heads of departments across the two levels of government at Kapsabet Primary School Hall on Wednesday.
ICT Authority officials, who are constitutionally mandated to sensitise and manage e-waste across public entities, regretted that many people, including government employees, were not aware of the dangers of unsafe disposal of e-waste.
“It has been noted that some of the e-waste in public offices in the country is not being accounted for,” Purity Wangui, an official from the ICT authority, revealed.
Wangui said that the ICT Authority had identified eight regional e-waste collection centres across the country, and it plans to devolve the centres to all 47 counties.
The official who described e-waste as an obsolete or discarded electronic material emphasised that their main duty is e-waste management, which is the process or actions taken to handle waste from its inception to its final disposal, and it is done through collection, sorting, recycling, and disposal.
She spoke of the need to dispose of equipment in time, as some may pose hazardous risks to individuals and people around them.
“Knowing what you have may be of value to you, but it may become a danger to your life and others working near you; we request you to dispose of it promptly,” she said.
Wangui spoke on the correct methods of handling one’s data in equipment that is regarded as e-waste. She said one needs to be very careful, as data may end up in the wrong hands, which can be misused by malicious people.
“Contact us so that we can guide you on how to back up your data before you bring the devices for disposal,” Wangui said.
Wangui went through the importance of the e-waste disposal scheme and the positive impacts it will have on our environment.
“The devices may be refurbished or recycled and then put into use again; it may result in more collecting centres being opened, and also it may lead to employment opportunities for young people in the county,” she said.
Wangui further cautioned against the removal of accessories in equipment that is considered e-waste.
“Some will say we cannot bring the equipment whilst it still has RAM; no, bring the equipment as it is because it has already been declared an e-waste,” she said.
Nandi Central Deputy County Commissioner, Alfet Jilo, who was present, thanked those attending and urged them to share the information they had gotten with their colleagues and within the wider community.
The DCC also urged them not to expect incentives or payments when disposing of the e-waste materials.
“I know some of us were expecting that the same way scrap metal dealers pay disposers, that it is going to be the same, but no, we have been informed that in the future what we are going to receive is a worthy and healthy environment; that is the payment we should expect,” she said.
By Geoffrey Satia and Daniel Ochieng