City Hall unveils plan to clean up Dandora dumpsite
The face of the Dandora dumpsite is set to change within three years once an ambitious city council clean-up project is completed. file
City Hall has hatched a new multi-million shilling plan to clean up the Dandora dumpsite, the refuse bin for all of Nairobi’s garbage, by ridding it of toxic emissions and turning it into a recreational park.
In a project that will precede the relocation of the dumpsite to Ruai, the City Council of Nairobi has placed tenders for physical improvement like drainage, extraction of harmful gases such as methane, introducing controlled tipping in cells, beautification and landscaping — an exercise referred to as decommissioning.
Health risk
The plan, which will cost Nairobi residents at least Sh600 million and run for three years, is expected to among other things cushion households in neighbouring Dandora, Kariobangi, Ngomongo and Korogocho, who are exposed to fatal risks posed by burning of waste.
Researchers said the dumpsite is a costly mess to millions of residents as the health risks posed by the fumes are enormous. They cite inhalation of the pollutants (toxic smoke and ash carried by the wind) as one of the most serious threats.
Isaac Muraya, director of environment at City Hall, said the decommissioning of the dumpsite will eliminate all negative environmental and health risks it currently poses and ensure proper management of waste.
“Indiscriminate waste disposal practices take place at the site at the moment. All mixed types of waste are disposed without proper separation hence posing a health hazard to the residents, ” said Mr Muraya.
According to City Hall, the toxic waste mixed together with municipal waste accounts for 62.8 per cent of the organic waste, meaning that about 30 per cent of the waste is non-biodegradable.
After the decommissioning, Mr Muraya said, a deep material recovery facility will be set up at the present site, where about 2,000 persons could earn a decent living daily by separating and sorting the various waste at the site.
“Similarly, part of the site will act as a recreation facility for the city residents, ” he added.
The decommissioning of the dumpsite is one of the fresh raft of strategies announced by City Hall yesterday as it seeks to improve service delivery.
Town Clerk Phillip Kisia said the council will soon have a multimedia contact centre, which will be a one- stop centre for all basic council services such as single business permits, council approvals, customer care, enquiries and general information. City Hall said it will hire professionals to run the centre, which is meant to improve customer relations.
“One does not need to hop from one office to the other in search of a simple service. All this will be eliminated, as we strive to come up with a multimedia contact centre in each division. Initially, we shall only develop one in the CBD, then move on to other areas in the next few months,” said Mr Kisia.
Shaky waste management systems have for long hurt credibility and service delivery at City Hall. But the long awaited relocation to Ruai has been delayed by the huge expensive investments required for recycling and other waste management facilities.
Waste recycling
At least 2,000 tonnes of waste are deposited at Dandora daily. Dandora dumpsite was established in 1981 and waste disposal over the years has been through open burning.
At least 30 million metric tonnes of waste is estimated to have been dumped at the site with about 900 metric tonnes being deposited at the site daily.
The health and environment risk posed by the dumpsite is one of the reasons why it is being moved to Ruai. The Ruai site was to be developed by the government with support from the United Nations Environment Programme and it is to have modern waste recycling facilities, which lack at the Dandora site.
Indeed, experts argue that the Dandora dumpsite contravenes international environmental laws, which require that dumpsites be closed down after 10 to 15 years of usage, yet the site has been in place for close to 30 years now.
Past studies, which involve an analysis of soil samples from locations adjacent to and within the dumpsite, show high levels of heavy metals from the site; in particular lead, mercury, cadmium, copper and chromium.
