The City of Windhoek is faced with the challenge of more solid waste being generated while at the same time grappling with a rapid reduction in the lifespan of its main waste disposal facility, Kupferberg Landfill.
It is against this background that the City of Windhoek and partners are embarking on a joint project to improve the management of solid waste.
During a stakeholder engagement workshop on the EU-funded project titled 'Improve Solid Waste in Management in Windhoek', it was revealed that, of 30 hectares of land available for dumping solid waste, 17 have been used up, with only 13 hectares left to be filled or preserved.
That, the city says, is not enough.
The municipality produces about 84,520 metric tonnes of waste annually, most of which end up in its landfill at Kupferberg, which is quickly running out of space and is under pressure to be extended.
"We don't have landfill space anymore. CoW has around 7,000 tonnes that have to go into the ground. Kupferberg is full. Kupferberg is not going to last us long in terms of waste, and to make another one is going to cost us N$300 million. Where are we going to get N$300 million?" asked environmental consultant Fred Kuojo.
Currently, the city's general waste disposal cell only has an estimated three years of operational lifespan left, while the hazardous waste disposal cell only has about two years.
However, its Chief Executive Officer, Moses Matyayi, says recycling 36% of what currently goes to the landfill should give it an additional one-and-a-half-year lifespan.
"NPW for Windhoek need a robust strategy of climate change has been adopted by the council and it has enabled a way on how waste should be managed with at least funding from the EU to come up with the intervention of reuse, reduce, recycle, and regeneration of waste within the aspects of coming up with a waste centre."
The project is implemented jointly by the EU Commission, the City of Windhoek, and the City of Bremen.
The project started in April 2021 and is expected to come to an end in March 2025.