Dutch consultancies are in talks with Kampala’s city authorities about an €8 million deal to generate electricity from the city's landfill. 

By Arne Doornebal, Kampala

“The stench is awful here, but that's a good a sign,” says Dutch engineer Tristan Hillebregt. “It means that a lot of biogas is being generated.” The engineer is standing on a 30 metre high mountain of rubbish, just outside the Ugandan capital. Huge Marabu storks search through the rubbish, side by side with a few dozen Ugandan labourers who look for anything that can be recycled.

The majority of the waste is organic material which releases a pungent smell as it starts to decompose. “That process leads to biogas,” Hillebregt explains. “The gas will be burnt in a gas engine and a generator will provide electricity directly to the national grid.” Uganda is facing an energy crisis, leaving people in the dark every second night in some areas of Kampala. 

Dutch technology
Hillebregt conducted a feasability study. Plastic pipes filled with gas were installed on top of the rubbish heap. I can smell it as we walk around. “This system can generate 3 Megawatts of electricity,” says the Ugandan businessman Victor Kajura, who is strongly supporting the project.

“We propose to use a Trisoplast top layer, which protects the waste from water. Then the gas will be extracted using Multriwell technology,” engineer Hillebregt says. Both products are made by a Dutch company in the province of Gelderland.

Medical waste
The Dutchman shows us a box full of used medical syringes, interspersed amongst the rubbish. “Shameful,” he says. “Medical staff should know better how to dispose of their waste.” Jaap Blom, a Dutch investor who has lived in Uganda for almost 20 years, agrees. “We saw that the disposal of medical waste was a big problem in Uganda, so we have built a high-quality incinerator for medical waste, 30 kms outside Kampala.”

The 1 million euros Bio Medical Waste facility was completed in January. “After a slow start we are now finally getting more customers,” says Blom. “But it is not easy to convince people that they should pay for a proper waste collection and disposal service instead of just dumping it for free.”

The incinerator has the capacity to burn 3.000 kg of waste per day. “We are now getting 500 kilos per day, so we still have plenty of capacity,” Blom says. “We are planning to collect the medical waste from the 1,200 small clinics in Kampala. Altogether they will bring in a lot of waste, while improving the environment. When we reach full capacity, we will invest in generating electricity from the heat of the incinerator. At the moment such an investment is not profitable.”

Looking for funds
“If we start soon I think we can have Kampala’s rubbish dump overhauled within a year,” says engineer Hillebregt. “This would include building the biogas plant.”

But spokesman Simon Muhumuza of Kampala’s city authority sees a different time scale. “Indeed, we are very interested in this facility,” he says. “But we are still looking for the required 8 million euros. If everything goes quickly we could start construction 15 months from now.”