Staff Writer
Mayor of City of Windhoek, Sade Gawanas and the Ambassador of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Namibia, Sinikka Antila signed an agreement for the construction of two waste buy back centres in Katutura, as part of EU-funded project to improve solid waste management in Windhoek under a project titled: “Improving Solid Waste Management in Windhoek”
The “Improving Solid Waste Management in Windhoek” is a four-year project implemented within the framework of the Windhoek-Bremen Sister Cities Cooperation funded by the EU to the tune of N$36.8 million.
The project is expected to recycle 2000 tons of waste, with 100 monthly drop-offs per month by 2025. About 6800 students (pre-primary, primary and secondary), and about 200,000 residents will be sensitised by the project on waste recycling. The participation of all stakeholders including the private sector and the residents of the municipality of Windhoek is crucial to ensure project success.
Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony, Gawanas said: “Despite considerable delays experienced at the project inception due to COVID 19 lockdown restrictions, substantial project implementation progress has been achieved.” She added “to date, public participation on the Environmental Impact Assessment process has been conducted for the two sites, and the project has been well received by residents, designs and layout are finalised, and construction of the Waste Buy Back Centre here at Erf 10713, situated at the corner of Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Bondel Street in Katutura.”
The main objective of the project is to reduce waste volumes and harmful environmental impacts, and thus to expand the share of recycled waste along with creating jobs through innovative start-ups in the circular economy in Windhoek.
The waste buy back centres will receive waste, process it, and add value to it for resell as raw material to the recycling industry for remanufacturing.
Ambassador Antila congratulated the two cities represented by their mayors for this positive milestone to achieve the City of Windhoek’s ambitious targets on recycling, packaging waste, landfill and solid waste management.
She said the ground-breaking for the construction of waste buy-back centres marks a very visible and impressive big step in our common endeavour to support Namibia to shift towards a more sustainable model known as the circular economy for Windhoek as a pilot, and hopefully for Namibia as a whole in the future.
