Kiambu Governor Kimani wa Matangi has hosted delegates from the United Nations Habitat along with a team from Uganda who are in the country studying waste management strategies.
The delegation, led by the Director Regional Office for Africa UN-Habitat Ishaku Maitumbi, has been traversing the country looking at innovative ways for waste management.
Ishaku said that the team is in the county to see how waste is handled to ensure proper urban planning and expressed his team’s intention to also visit the dumping site to find out what systems are in place.
“We choose Kiambu County as our first county as one of the countries which has made major strides in waste management,” he said, adding that “the Kangoki dumping site will provide us with important data on how waste is handled and correctly sorted,” said Ishaku.
The governor briefed the delegates on the game-changing technology being deployed at Kang’oki, which is one of the major dumping sites in the county. The Department of Environment and Waste Management has partnered with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for proper waste disposal.
The Fukuoka Method is a low-cost, sustainable intervention for landfill remediation that utilises low-cost technologies and resource materials.
“Our county is on track to replicate the success of the Fukuoka Landfill technology in waste management at the Kang’oki dumpsite,” Wa Matangi said.
He said every household should have its own waste management system. “My administration is engaging with our people to encourage waste sorting at the household level. Through this initiative, we aim to significantly reduce the volume of waste transported to the Thika landfill,” noted Wa Matangi.
The county hopes to adopt a proactive approach to the challenge of dumping, as an important crusade to educate communities on the impact of illegal dumping and on the County Government’s ability to provide an efficient waste management service and system.
Just days earlier, the Kiambu Government, through its Ministry of Environment and Waste Management, launched a campaign for a cleaner and greener county by distributing litter bins across all its 14 sub-counties.
The Governor said such projects would go a long way towards making a meaningful difference in the environment.
By Grace Naishoo
