Jinja city, govt partner to turn waste into energy

Jinja City Council and the central government have embarked on the generation of energy from waste.
This was revealed by Mr Lazarus Oketch, an energy officer in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development.

Mr Oketch said through the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) project, the line ministry has patterned with Jinja City Council to turn waste into biogas following a survey conducted on waste flow between 2021 and 2022.
According to the survey, 8,041m3 of wastewater is generated per day by households, institutions, industries and commercial enterprises in Jinja City’s Central Business District.

“The survey was commissioned to determine the quantity and quality of waste generated and its resulting energy potential to kick start the project. We now have the statistics and can do proper planning,’’ he said on Monday.
He added that approximately 182.6 tonnes of solid waste is estimated to be generated in Jinja City per day, while its per capita city solid waste generation rate is estimated to be 0.593kgs per person per day.
Markets, industries and institutions and commercial businesses generate approximately 18.7, 19.6 and 10.2 tonnes of waste per day respectively, which are providing a good opportunity for investment in the waste-to-energy project.

Mr Oketch said although waste is still considered a “nuisance”, it is a resource that can be converted into useful energy.
Mr Ernest Nabihamba, the Jinja City senior environment officer, said they have embarked on training individuals and households on how to collect and sort garbage for proper disposal. Mr Nabihamba added that they will use health inspectors, village health teams (VHTs) officials and village chairpersons in the sensitisation campaign.
“The Garbage Management Ordinance that was created bans people from burning garbage, but encourages them to sort it for proper disposal,’’ he said.

He, however, noted that people don’t want to sort garbage, while those who do so are about 30 percent, and mainly perform the act to recover biodegradables used for manure and animal feeds or to recover plastics for sale.
Currently, garbage in Jinja City is being collected without first being sorted, and dumped at a landfill in Masese Village, Jinja City South Division.

Ms Fazira Kawuma, the Jinja deputy mayor, urges the public to treat garbage as “an economic resource” by disposing it properly.
“We want to keep our city clean through proper disposal of our waste and to generate energy. This will be a collective responsibility,’’ she said.
The garbage being collected is paid for by the generators and the fees are dependent on the capacity of garbage collected by an individual.