Angola’s economic development, the expansion of its urban, suburban, and rural areas have led to a rise in solid waste, which currently totals some 2.19 million tons per year, an Environment Ministry official said.

The Environment Ministry’s Strategic Plan for Urban Waste Management (Pesgru), outlines creation of landfill sites in all of the country’s provincial capitals in the next two years and similar sites in all municipal headquarters in the next eight years, totalling 173 sites by 2020.

Cited by Angolan weekly newspaper Expansão, Dulce Pássaro, the coordinator of Pesgru, said that, based on the amount of waste generated it was urgent to set up incineration units as well as, by 2020, drawing up feasibility studies to make use of biogas from the landfill sites with a capacity of over 40,000 tons per year.

The Environment Minister, Fátima Jardim, said that waste production averaged 0.46 grams per day per citizen, depending on the city, and in Luanda that figure totals almost 1 kilo per capita, and in some areas is even higher. (macauhub)