11 Jun 2013

Gaborone City Council has taken a major step towards addressing the problem of waste and waste management by partnering with Vasteras Municipality, which is more advanced and resourced in terms of dealing with waste management.

Addressing a press briefing to update media about progress of the partnership with the Swedish city council, the deputy mayor of Gaborone Ms Florence Shagwa said GCC has been inundated with public complaints of the city being in a bad state of waste.

She said though the council has been committed to addressing the problem, it was not successful because of limited resources which include among others, funds and frequent breakdown of refuse trucks which embark on a daily journey of 35km to Gamodudu Regional Landfill.

Ms Shagwa, who later with the GCC mayor Mr Haskins Nkaigwa hosted a dinner for the asteras Municipality mayor Mrs Ulla Persson and her entourage who had visited the country, said GCC signed partnership with Vasteras municipality following a symbiotic international conference on waste management which they were invited to in Namibia and South Africa in June 2010. 

She told the media that following the conference, Swedish Trade Council organised a waste technology workshop where GCC wrote a proposal to the council proposing a partnership arrangement with a Swedish municipality and Vasteras was chosen as a potential partner as it was said to be one of the cleanest cities in Sweden.

Fortunately, she said, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) financed the partnership agreement to the tune of close to P2 million (SEK 250 000) and the aim of the cooperation was to design a cooperation to facilitate the development of a municipal cooperation in high priority partnership countries, and in Sweden for mutual benefit with focused results.

The agreement will therefore facilitate the construction of waste transfer station and recycling station near the city of Gaborone and this development according to Ms Shagwa, waste management in the city will significantly be managed.

The development will also make the city to be habitable and enhance public health safety.

The two parties have therefore agreed to cooperate on issues which include public education, school health programme on waste management, design of transfer station, design of a landfill gas extraction system for the closed landfill, management and cooperation of Gamodudu landfill site, disposal of hazardous waste management and piloting of recycling initiative among others.   

Meanwhile future projects can be developed within partnership programme if decided by appointed management committee for mutual partnership. However the budget for the partnership must comply with Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy. The municipality partnership is valid for four years.

Meanwhile the visiting Swedish delegation which will be here until June 10, 2013, will see the preparation of inception report, conduct site selection on identified site, conduct a pre-feasibility study, conduct a feasibility study and conduct a bankable feasibility study among others.

For his part mayor Nkaigwa said it has been a long journey for this dream to come true and therefore said action should now begin. He also said residents should now start treating waste as a resource which could create a source of employment.  ENDS