Waste-to-energy plant offers brighter future to children working on Freetown landfill

An ambitious plan to rid the city of Freetown of thousands of tonnes of waste and rejuvenate acres of land is under way, offering at least some hope for a generation of children.

Infinitum Energy – a developer of global power projects – has tabled a bid to create a waste-to-energy power plant which aims to add 30 megawatts to the capital of Sierra Leone's energy supply, and sell electricity generated by refuse back to the government.

A general election is due in June, but those behind the plans are confident they will not be derailed by results of the vote to elect a new president and parliament.

“Our idea is to remove all this waste and transform it into electricity,” said Dr Yassin Kargbo, Sierra Leone country director for Infinitum Energy.

“The project is two years old, and we have had to stage an agreement to engage with the government to sell energy.

Dr Kargbo said the plans can go ahead once they have been approved by the new government in July or August.

“When it starts we will buy waste from these people living here and give them something in return,” he said.

Freetown has been struck by long-term mismanagement of its waste collection and housing supply, compelling some families to exist on mountains of rubbish piled 20 metres high in the heart of one of the fastest growing cities in West Africa.

Children as young as five, who collect shards of plastic and metal to pay for an education, represent a community of more than 2,000 people who call the Kolleh Town site home.

Education is free up to the age of 18 in Sierra Leone by law, but out in the provinces and away from supervision, teachers often still demand payment, typically up to $3 per term.

Creating jobs and power

The technology at the heart of the plan converts waste such as plastics, wood, tyres, food scraps and even coal into renewable, on-demand, baseload power from an eight-acre power plant in the Hastings area of Freetown.

The project is set to cost $180 million and provide 200 jobs on site, as well as 1,000 jobs in local waste collection.

Sierra Leone has some of the lowest levels of access to electricity in Africa, with only 22 per cent able to plug into a regular power supply.

Infinitum Energy projection figures show more than 400,000 tons of CO2 could be diverted from the atmosphere by generating renewable energy, and 365,000 tons of rubbish cleared from city dumping grounds.

Waste collected from rubbish sites in Sierra Leone is currently being sold to traders in neighbouring Guinea.

People scour waste to pick out valuable plastic, glass and metal that can be sold for 50 cents per 1kg bag to be recycled.

Developers want that money to stay in the country to encourage further growth, while a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme promises new homes, schools and hospitals in areas dominated by huge piles of refuse.

“Excavating the rubbish is the only way people can survive, to feed their families,” said Daniel-Bob Jones, national chairman of community disaster management and Kolleh Town community chairman.

Due to internal migration during the civil war, people moved to reclaimed land and stayed there, he said.

“A huge number of people have moved in during a period of unplanned urbanisation,” he added. “Many people now live here in the dump.”

However, he calls the waste power project in the heart of Freetown “commendable”.

“If we can relocate to elsewhere in the town and solve these energy problems, we will all be very happy,” he said.

Population boom

Freetown's population is forecast to increase from 1.5 million to around 1.6 million people in the next decade.

More than 250 families live in the nearby Bomeh rubbish site, where dumpsters unload tons of Sierra Leone's refuse each day, and sewage pours out onto the landscape.

When annual torrential rainfall comes, makeshift homes are washed away with sometimes fatal consequences. With cholera and malaria rife, there can be few more dangerous places to live.

Maligie Koroma, 42, is one of 15 supervisors at Freetown City Council and leader of Bomeh’s waste collection.

He said that in order for the country to become clean, respect is needed.

“We are the ones who live in the dirt and collect the rubbish,” he said. “We are scavengers but we should be respected.

“People think we do not matter in the community. The government has no regard for us, with no toilets or sanitation of any kind.”

Mr Koroma highlighted that while a project has been launched by the Freetown mayor to create a borehole to provide water to extinguish rubbish fires that start from the heat, more needs to be done to prevent them altogether.

Collecting scraps of rubbish to sell is painstaking and dangerous work, but high-value materials – such as plastic, metal, discarded flip-flops, drinks cans and training shoes – are the currency in Bomeh.

Plastic value

Kaditu Kariwallie, a 55-year-old grandmother who raised her children and grandchildren on the site, has lived there for 20 years.

“My child and grandchild were born here, but I would rather they were here with me than out there on the streets doing crime,” she said.

“We have to have a livelihood.”

She told The National a bulldozer that pushed rubbish from one side of the site to another helped them find more plastic and metal.

“The traders from Guinea melt it down and reuse it in manufacturing,” she said.

“We can manage our lives here, but we need help.”

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