Counties face solid waste nightmare

Residents of Dandora, Nairobi, Kenya, salvage waste materials near an excavator, February 14 2022. [File, Standard]

Waste management has been identified as one of the major challenges that counties across the country are grappling with.

The situation is expected to worsen in the coming years due to a surge in population and as counties welcome more industrial parks.

To address this, the Council of Governors (COG) and the Treasury are advocating for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) engagements between county governments and investors.

This comes at a time when counties are facing increasing fiscal pressures, including rising wage obligations and accumulated pending bills that have constrained the pace of implementation of some development projects.

Haron Ng’eno, the Technical Lead for Trade, Industry and Investment Committee at the COG, says 34 counties are in the process of constructing County Aggregation and Industrial Parks (CAIP).

Ng’eno says the parks are expected to generate significant economic activities, including opportunities in waste management and environmental sustainability, and the Council is encouraging investors to explore innovative waste management and recycling solutions within the parks.

“We have about ten County Aggregation and Industrial Parks that are almost due for launch and there will be waste coming up from them that should be turned into by-products for value addition,” he said.

Ng’eno said that the Council was appraising the legislative arms of county governments in coming up with the necessary legislation to support the PPP.

“We are working to assist counties to identify some climate-smart business models and opportunities that are there and that should be on-boarded through the PPP framework,” he said.

On the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA), Ng’eno said the programme entailed supporting counties in various projects aimed at reducing emissions to the global economy.

“This programme seeks to ensure the issues of global warming are addressed as we reduce emissions from the industrial parks, and emissions from whatever we are consuming in our household,” he said.

Meru County Assembly chief whip Jim Muchui admitted that counties were struggling with salaries and pending bills at the expense of development.

Muchui lauded the PPP engagements, noting that the budget for counties meant for development was becoming thinner by the day due to growing recurrence and salary reviews.

“There is a need for emphasis on private-public partnerships,” he said.