Sh27bn recycling plant to be built in Nairobi, says Kidero

Nairobi is choking under huge mountains of garbage. file photo | nmg 

By COLLINS OMULO

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Summary

• Plans to build the plant have been pursued since 2013 with previous talks with investors not coming to completion.
• Nairobi is choking in garbage with the city’s largest dumping site in Dandora reeling under the weight of excessive solid waste holding over 1.8 million tonnes of waste against an expected capacity of 500,000 tonnes.

Nairobi is in talks with investors to establish a Sh27 billion garbage recycling plant.

Nairobi County Governor Dr Evans Kidero said construction of the plant is expected to start in six months as investors look at the garbage to generate electricity that will be injected to the national grid.

Plans to build the plant have been pursued since 2013 with previous talks with investors not coming to completion.

“We are working on this issue with strategic partners who have promised to build a 270 million Euros recirculation plant with the construction set to start within the next six months,” said Dr Kidero.

Currently, Nairobi is choking in garbage with the city’s largest dumping site in Dandora reeling under the weight of excessive solid waste holding over 1.8 million tonnes of waste against an expected capacity of 500,000 tonnes.

Heaps of uncollected garbage lie in neighbourhoods from residential estates in Eastlands, to the posh settlements in Westlands, as well as in the city’s slums such as Kibra, Mathare, Dandora among others.

Governor Kidero, who has been at the helm of the city county for four years now and is seeking re-election, has however, defended himself against attacks from Nairobi residents on lack of a sustained garbage collection efforts saying that when he was elected governor in 2013, the city had about 2.2 tons of garbage in both city streets and residential areas but the county has been working round the clock to collect the waste with more resources invested in the area than ever before, that is, private garbage collectors have been contracted and number of lorries engaged in the exercise increased from 13 to 90.

“When I got in, the city had 2.2 tonnes of garbage and were collecting only 300 tonnes of garbage a day. I did not know the dynamics then but now I know and we are collecting more garbage with over 2, 200 tons being collected every day,” he said.