TO BE PHASED OUT; Children going through the garbage heap at Nyanza Landfill (File photo)
KIGALI - After almost two decades, the Nyanza landfill, Kigali’s sole garbage dumping site, will shut down within the next three years. According to Toshi Mito, the coordinator of the project that is working on the phase-out of the site, plans to set up a new landfill are in high gear.
The new site, assessed and approved by the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) will be located about 2 km from the brick factory near Nyabarongo River, about 10 km west from Kigali city, Mito said.
According to Mito, the consulting firm that will design the new landfill will be selected at the end of this month, and a contract will be signed “hopefully this year”.
Plans to shift the landfill received a boost with the arrival of a German-based company, WAT, which showed interest in extracting methane gas from the site.
WAT is already doing business in Rwanda having put up solar panels that serve the electricity grid.
Experts from the University of Fukuoka Japan and those from Maine Germany (WAT) indicate that the Nyanza landfill can be renovated and the garbage reduced by covering it with soil to avoid the fires that rage from underneath.
The new site will cost US$3m, US$2.5m which will be footed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and another $ 500,000 By ‘the One Fund’.
The Minister for Lands and Environment early this year told members of the Lower Chamber of Parliament that the biggest challenge with phasing out of the Nyanza site was the fact that it receives indiscriminate waste, ranging from medical to solid and liquid waste.
The site receives at least 400 tonnes of waste everyday and estimates indicate that this could increase threefold in five years.
The project is being executed by Kigali City Council (KCC) and the Ministry of Infrastructure.
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