Garbage plan overdue

After years of unfulfilled promises about eradicating the garbage eyesore in the city, Nairobi residents might finally see hope looming in the horizon.

The City Council of Nairobi deserves a pat on the back after announcing a Sh3 billion plan to centralise garbage collection in the city.

City residents are, however, sceptical since they are always being told that the garbage problem will be a thing of the past, but the status quo still remains.

The city council now wants to reduce the city’s huge load of refuse by using it to generate electricity and cooking gas.

The project is sponsored by the Japanese government and is scheduled for completion in 2015.

It will see the creation of a single garbage collection point at Ruai.

According to the mayor, 74 dumping sites scattered around the city will as a result be closed down.

The sole purpose of a single waste collection point is aimed at attracting investors who have kept off the business due to lack of huge volumes.

Nairobi’s daily garbage output is estimated at 2,000 tonnes, but only 33 per cent of this is collected.

Garbage is used to make fertilizer and plastic products and when it decomposes it produces highly flammable methane gas that can be tapped and used to generate electricity or can be used as cooking gas.

Some cities in the world like Durban in South Africa use garbage to produce electricity.

Durban generates six megawatts of electricity from sewage and a similar amount from garbage.

A South Africa-based research group, Frost & Sullivan, says that waste management projects are major business opportunities in East Africa as managing garbage is a problem.

Beisdes reducing the city’s massive load of garbage, the plan to generate electricity will help Kenya reduce its heavy dependence on rain fed hydro-power and the more expensive thermal power.

The move will also help inject additional power to the national grid at a time when the country is running short of power.