PM orders closure of dumping site

The Nyanza dumping site (landfill) is to be closed and relocated to another area this year. Speaking to The New Times, Kigali City Council’s Vice Mayor in charge of Finance and Economic affairs, Alphonse Nzeyimana, said the decision follows Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi’s order to close the site within a month following his visit in December last year. The landfill located in Rukatsi Cell, Kagarama Sector, Kicukiro District will gradually be relocated, first to a temporary site and then to a permanent one. “The landfill is a health hazard to residents around it, so it’s in this regard that the Prime Minister told city authorities to look for an alternative” Nzeyimana said. He said the Ministry of Infrastructure, Energy, Water and Sanitary Authority (EWSA) and the City of Kigali are currently seeking for another site where the landfill can be relocated so that it would not cause any danger to the population and the environment. According to Nzeyimana, two sites, one in Rusororo Sector and another in Nduba Sector in Gasabo District, have been identified, but no decision has been arrived at, adding that it would be decided today. He said that the new site would be upgraded in line with environmental guidelines and not pose any health risk. The new landfill will be located at distance of at least 1 kilometre from residential areas and new methods of waste disposal would be introduced. Nzeyimana said that KCC had not planned for the relocation but would seek for funding from the central government for the provisional site before shifting to Kigali Sector in Nyarugenge District where the construction of a permanent landfill is expected to be completed within 2-3 years. “The detailed study concerning the construction of the permanent landfill in Kigali Sector is now about 50 percent complete and will be finished between March and April this year and then we will begin the process of tender documents which will be finalised in June of this year” Nzeyimana said. He added that after the tendering process, the city, together with other concerned institutions, would look for funds to begin construction activities to be completed in two and a half years. Jean Claude Habimana, a resident of Nyanze community settlement in Rukatsi Cell, Kagarama Sector where the landfill is located said: “This garbage collection centre has been a serious danger to our lives because we have been facing problems of flies”. He added that residents have also been contracting malaria as the dumping site has been a mosquito breeding ground. steven.mugisha@newtimes.co.rw

National

PM orders closure of dumping site