The City of Windhoek council on Tuesday approved a proposal by Smart City Sweden Research Institute to conduct a waste to an energy feasibility study in Windhoek.
According to mayor Sade Gawanas, the department of electricity in the past invited local companies through a national bidding process for a consultancy for waste to energy feasibility studies but the efforts have been unsuccessful twice due to a lack of local experts.
However, during the Dubai Expo, representatives of the City of Windhoek were approached by Smart City Sweden, who presented the proposal to conduct the feasibility study.
“The work will be done by the Smart City Sweden Research Institute (IVL) with Smart City Sweden contributing 33% of the costs of the study. The rest of the cost will be carried by the city infrastructure, water and technical services and electricity departments. The total cost of the consulting fees amounts to N$4.1 million,” she said.
The council was informed city would seek ministerial approval for the donation of 33% of the study costs by Smart City Sweden before proceeding with the project procurement process.
She said the Swedish experts are expected to meet the relevant stakeholders in Namibia and acquaint themselves with the waste treatment sites during project implementation to ensure that the outcome of the study based on their experts’ knowledge and expertise will be representative as will be adapted to the Windhoek situation.
The waste to energy is a specialised field that is currently not available in Namibia.
The department of electricity has already budgeted N$1.2 million for the consultancy services of waste to energy in the 2021/22 financial year, hence council’s remaining contribution of N$755 000 is available to be committed to the project.
The council meeting was also informed that budgetary provision is also made in the 2022/2023 financial year in case the project spills over to the next financial year.
The meeting was informed that the City of Windhoek will not only benefit from having the waste to energy pre-feasibility study done at a discounted cost but also benefit from having a study by a specialised, experienced and reputable international company the Sweden Research Institute.
The department has severally attempted to have this done with the assistance of the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) without success.