It is hoped that in few couple of years we shall have reached and surpassed most of our millennium development goals. Africa’s population is growing by a huge margin that its development is more often than not followed by a negative impact. Our growing population on our continent has both social and economic implications. It gives hope for economic growth but on the flip-side it also makes the continent unable to manage small issues such as food security, youth employment and most of all waste management which if not handled with caution can cause outbreaks of diseases. Kenya is dealing with those issues and waste management is an issue of concern.
Kiambu was chosen by the UN-Habitat as a county to implement a modernized waste disposal dumpsite which will be set to revolutionize our way of waste disposal and curb issues relating to illegal dumping. The semi-aerobic, landfill method is part of a model project by the University of Japan that employs the Fukuoka method of waste disposal. It has a comparative advantage over other waste management methods because it is able to manage 70-100 tonnes of waste daily in addition to a leachate treatment system.
It was opened in Thika which is the largest town in Kiambu County; it will be part of Kiambu County’s great commitment to ensure that it will bring efficient and effective waste management methods. The modernized waste disposal site is said to be highly advantaged over our convectional ways of waste disposal methods as it will allow cost effectiveness, increase waste decomposition, and cause reduction in methane emission.
This landfill is the first of its type in Africa. We need to manage our waste well as looking at the largest disposal site in Kenya, located in Dandora shows us the dangers of letting the problem get out of control. It creates an ecosystem which sometimes becomes hard to dismantle despite the fact that it is a hazard to the communities living in and around it. Other counties should take note. Nairobi should be taking notes from this project and seeing how it can turn around the situation. If this project works well then it should be up-scaled and the county governments create something similar in their counties.