Something Positive: From Clicks to Cleanups: Juba’s Youth-Led Waste Revolution | An Encouraging Development

Why this story matters: Stories like this remind us that improvement often comes through small, steady efforts.

Quick summary: This story highlights recent developments related to climate environment, showing how constructive action can lead to meaningful results.

The first time Makur Majeng posted photos on social media of trash-clogged drainage ditches along the White Nile in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, his phone would not stop buzzing. “How can I help?” one message read.

Within hours, 20 young people — many of whom had never met one another before — had pledged to join him that Saturday at Suk Darfur, one of the busiest markets in the city, armed with little more than willpower, trash bags and a few pairs of disposable gloves.

An urban cleanup is sorely needed. When Juba’s municipal garbage collection collapsed in March 2023, the streets were left flooded with refuse, choking the White Nile and compounding the disastrous, ongoing decline of the Nile into which it flows. The acrid smell of burning plastic fills the air.

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Frustrated by authorities’ failure to take action, young volunteers have stepped into the void, organizing cleanups via social media, training students in environmental policy and pressuring local officials to address the major environmental and health threats posed by the state of their streets and waterways. In doing so, they are building, piece by piece, the nascent foundations of a desperately needed — albeit informal — waste disposal system.

For years, sprawling mounds of garbage have been a defining feature of Juba’s streets. Plastic bags, discarded food, medical waste and broken glass spill across neighborhoods, and torrential rains then sweep it all into the White Nile. The stench in the humid afternoon heat often becomes unbearable, creating a public health ticking time bomb, according to Dr. Kediende Chong, Director General of Preventive Health Services and Emergency Response at South Sudan’s health ministry.

Since South Sudan’s longest cholera outbreak was declared in October 2024 — an outbreak which continues to this day — UN agencies and partners have documented over 80,000 cases of the disease and 1,400 deaths. Contributing factors to the protracted humanitarian crisis include conflict, extreme hunger, poor sanitation and intense flooding driven by climate change, but outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid are also intimately linked to trash because accumulated garbage contaminates water sources and attracts flies. Experts warn that the waste crisis also jeopardizes the long-term health of the White Nile ecosystem.

Determined to improve the situation, this crisis prompted Majeng and dozens of volunteers to launch Save the Nile, a youth-led initiative made possible by seed funding from the National Geographic Society and The Nature Conservancy’s externship program, in February 2025. Over the past year, the funding has enabled the group to mobilize 150 volunteers and organize cleanup campaigns across the city, removing more than 300 kilograms of solid waste from the river, according to Majeng.

Making a dent in the city’s mountains of waste is a start, but the movement’s “true currency,” Majeng argues, is what he calls collective frustration transformed into action.

“People care. They just need a platform to act,” he says. “After I posted pictures from one of our market cleanups, I received dozens of messages from people thanking us and asking, ‘How can I join the next one?’ Others even invited us to clean up their neighborhoods.”

James Deng, 23, a youth leader with Save the Nile, says the government’s cumbersome permit process and other bureaucratic hurdles have stalled volunteer cleanups. He adds that residents in Juba say that getting anything done often requires showing up day after day, pressing until officials grow weary and finally act.

But he has also seen firsthand how the work of Save the Nile has shifted attitudes in his neighborhood.

“When we first started, people were skeptical,” he says. “They would ask, ‘Why should we do this? Isn’t it the government’s job?’ But now, there’s a sense of pride in the work we’re doing.”

According to Deng, what began as a modest effort to collect trash has grown into something broader. “This isn’t just about waste management. It’s about building a community that cares for itself and for one another. The more we work together, the stronger we become.”

Mary Kaku John, another young volunteer, echoes this sentiment. “At first, I just wanted to help clean my neighborhood,” she says. “But now, I see this is about changing how we live and taking care of each other.”

To help weave environmental education into daily life, Save the Nile has partnered with local churches and schools, John says. The outcome: Students who once tossed plastic bottles without a thought now pick them up reflexively, and neighbors who barely spoke now coordinate weekly cleanups together.

Other organizations are introducing environmental stewardship to residents of Juba in different ways. The Eden Foundation, a national non-profit established in 2019, provides training in electronic waste management and climate change adaptation.

In September 2025, the foundation ran YouthEco Lab, a program teaching students to draft policy briefs and design sustainable business models around recycling.

Abraham Makuch, an environmental activist and member of the South Sudan Environment Conservation Society, founded in 2020, emphasizes the importance of meeting communities where they are.

“Engaging youth and communities requires adopting methods from local cultures, conducting awareness in local languages, and providing workshops and training,” he says. “By speaking to people in Bari, Dinka, Nuer and Juba Arabic, activists bridge the gap between technical environmental science and the daily lived experiences of marketplace vendors and riverside residents.”

Despite various grassroots efforts, the pollution of Juba and the river that runs through it continues. Juma Moses Michael, Juba’s deputy mayor for environment and sanitation at the time of interview, said the city’s door-to-door garbage collection had to be stopped back in 2023 after monthly taxes collected from residents to fund it proved insufficient to sustain the service.

Michael added that the Ministry of Environment has proposed plastic bans and recycling facilities. But these proposals remain largely on paper, awaiting the legislative muscle and budget allocation required to become a reality. The city council has, however, rented a dumping site from Juba County with plans to develop it into a modern landfill, something Michael says will lead to “better waste management.”

For Majeng and his volunteers, bureaucratic responses feel like too little too late. They cite chronic funding shortages, scant institutional backing and a burdensome permit process. While the government debates policy, they argue, trash continues to flow into the Nile, threatening fish stocks and water quality for communities downstream, and posing significant risks to human health.

Makuch agrees, pointing to the absence of a comprehensive and robustly enforced environmental protection law, which prevents the establishment of crucial oversight bodies that could provide robust enforcement and sustainable planning.

Ultimately, however, both Majeng and Makuch recognize that without state involvement, Juba’s trash crisis will only continue. They, and John, say that grassroots initiatives are playing a role in this regard by creating positive ripples that show Jubans that change is possible, increasing pressure on the government to invest in badly needed services.

Save the Nile’s work is about changing how Jubans live, says John, adding: “When young people lead by example, others follow.”

This article is published in collaboration with Egab.

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