People look on as an excavator digs through rubble during a search and rescue operation at Kiteezi landfill in Wakiso District on August 10, 2024. PHOTO/ISAAC KASAMANI
The plans to construct a waste-to-energy plant at Ddundu village in Kyampisi subcounty in Mukono district and a waste-to-fertiliser plant at the condemned Kiteezi landfill site could come to naught over uncoordinated movement of troops.
This improper coordination, knowledgeable sources told Monitor, largely explains why the plans never materialised in the first place during the last nine years since the first red flag was raised about the Kiteezi dumpsite spilling beyond its buffer zone.
“Investors were coming, they start discussions. Before conclusion with one, another official brings another investor, they start discussions; they tell them to go do feasibility, etc studies. Another investor comes, and the pattern goes,” sources told this reporter.
The current scramble to invest in the plants, energy sources revealed to Monitor separately, could render the projects “aborted” over “sustainable waste supply.”
For instance, Ric Sun Investments S.L and their local partners Vida Energy Uganda Ltd, are in the lead to construct a $100m (Shs364b) 20 megawatts waste to energy power plant at Ddundu proposing to churn 1,090 tonnes of waste per day.
The joint venture in early August submitted a notice of intended application for licence to the power regulator, Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), which published the notice early this month.
The company first initiated discussions with the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) in April 2023, but only made significant headway later in October after securing audience with President Museveni and subsequently being given greenlight on November 1. The company expects to reach financial closure by the end of June 2025 and commence operations in November 2026.
Parallel discussions are ongoing about a proposal submitted by another company China National Electric Engineering Co. Ltd, also proposing to develop and finance the Shs364b waste-to-power plant at Ddundu, whose executives led by Zhang Sheng met with the President at State House in May.
On the other hand, ERA had already granted a permit to another company, NLS Waste Power Plant Ltd, to develop a waste-to- energy power plant in Mbalala-Mukono district, also using the waste generated in Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA).
The power plant at Mbalala tailored on European quality standards, according to the proposal by NLS, will incinerate 1,300 tonnes of waste per day to generate 115megawatts.
According to KCCA, Kampala generates between 2,000 and 2,500 tonnes of waste per day but is only able to collect and dispose an average of 1,300 to 1,500 tonnes daily.
Sources indicated if “proposals from other investors in the picture” such as the Ghanian company, Jospong Group, which was reportedly brokered by senior officials in Parliament, “serious sustainability issues arise” since waste supply is critical for the operation of the plant.
ERA’s director for corporate and consumer affairs, Mr Julius Wandera told Daily Monitor that there is need for “extra due diligence to clarify” on which projects KCCA has cleared to access the waste generated.
“Our review established that there is an eminent risk of access to waste since all the three projects were proposing to use waste generated in Greater Kampala,” Mr Wandera noted.
As such, ERA indicated that further due-dilligence was necessitated on the proposal by the Ric Sun Investments S.L/ Vida Energy Uganda Ltd joint venture following media reports that KCCA had engaged Jospong Group to also develop a waste plant in Kiteezi.
The MoU Ric Sun Investments S.L/ Vida Energy Uganda Ltd joint venture presented to ERA indicated that KCCA was to supply the Ddundu waste-to-energy Project with waste hauled from the condemned Kiteezi site.
The Inspector General of Government (IGG) Beti Kamya on October suspended KCCA’s deal with Jospong Group of Companies on grounds that the company was handpicked, bypassing standard government procurement procedures as outlined in the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act (PPDA) in the awarding of their contract.
“You are therefore directed to halt all transactions with Jospong Group of Companies who have been engaged to manage the Kiteezi landfill until this office completes investigations or issues further orders on the matter,” the IGG’s letter stated.
The company, it was reported, planned to convert Kiteezi waste into among other fertilisers and other recyclable materials.
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Knowledgeable sources told Monitor that Jospong Group of Companies’s executives hastily flew in the country last week and met the President on Wednesday. During the meeting attended by the acting KCCA executive director Frank Rusa and the junior minister for Kampala Affairs, Kabuye Kyofatogaby the President directed IGG to back the probe.
Meanwhile, Mr Kyofatogabye in a separate interview last week on Thursday revealed that he had alsos secured a Japanese investor proposing furnace and incinerator technology to deal with the Kiteezi waste mess.
“Really, I want to protect them so they can do the work. This one is for compassionate support, and he’s spending like $4m (Shs14.8b) on the whole process of decommissioning. And we also want to construct ritchet ponds for treatment of the wastewater before it is released to the environment,” he added.
