Construction of a solid waste management facility in Murang’a county is at 40 percent complete.
The facility dubbed sanitary landfill, which is funded by World Bank and the government of Kenya is expected to be complete and operational by March, next year.
Murang’a County Executive Member for Environment and Natural resources Ms Cecilia Kibe has confirmed that the construction of the landfill located at Gikono area in Makuyu commenced mid this year after a court case which was seeking to block the project was dismissed.
A local resident had moved to court seeking to halt the Sh. 1.2 billion project citing lack of adequate public participation and health risks it may pose to residents who live near the facility.
Kibe said the case was concluded and the Nairobi Metropolitan Service Improvement Programme (NaMSIP), which is implementing the project was given green light to proceed.
Speaking when she led college students and residents on a cleanup exercise at Murang’a town on Friday, the CEC observed that currently trees are being planted at the buffer zones bordering the landfill.
The project, she added when complete will be of a big reprieve for the county in terms of managing solid waste.
The landfill is designed to receive 500 tonnes of solid waste daily and it will be third in African after Egypt and South Africa.
Kibe noted that local leaders were taken for benchmarking in Tanzania and South Africa to learn how a landfill operates.
“We will have garbage collection centres in all sub counties and the waste will be transported to the landfill. The waste which will be managed there will be only organic,” she added.
The CEC added that the county is in process to procure four trucks which will facilitate collection of garbage.
Kibe urged local residents to consider dumping waste at designated areas so as to make the process of collecting garbage easy.
“The county government is committed to regularly collect garbage and make our towns clean,” She added disputing claims that the county administration has failed to collect waste regularly.
For the last one month, residents and traders have been complaining of uncollected garbage with fears that the trend may occasion spread of diseases.
During the exercise, dustbins were distributed among business people and at residential houses for easy collection of garbage.
“We want business people to have dustbins at their premises so that they can dump waste which will be collected regularly,” added Kibe.
By Bernard Munyao
