City environmental friendly project on track

The City of Windhoek has reportedly made great progress with the proposed Windhoek Biogas Cleaner Development Mechanism Project, a carbon credit project.
Pierre van Rensburg, who initiated the project said that contract negotiations and compilation of the contract documentation with the intended service provider was concluded at the end of 2011,  and “the signing of the contract with the technical service provider is scheduled to happen before the end of January 2012,” he added.
The signing of the contract will commence after a three month design period where after detailed designs and cost estimates will be submitted to the City of Windhoek for final approval before construction can commence.
Meanwhile, van Rensburg said that the carbon consultant has in the meantime completed the Project Design Document and it has been submitted to a number of validators for the purpose of obtaining quotations.
“Out of 11 requests for quotations, six were received by December 2011. These have been evaluated and the preferred validator has been selected. Appointment is scheduled to happen before the end of January 2012 with the actual validation to start soon thereafter in February 2012,” he added.
City of Windhoek last year submitted the project proposal to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism highlighting the intention of the city and on a broader scale the details of the project, and a letter of no object was issued by the department of environmental affairs as the national designated authority.
The City of Windhoek project has thus far progressed as far as national approval, registration and validation.
The exercise is aimed at reducing the emission of methane, which is considered a very high impact greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, 21 times higher than that of carbon dioxide.
In an interview with the Economist last year, van Rensburg said that the project is expected to generate revenue from the sales of Certified Emissions Reduction certificates to finance the refurbishment of the sludge treatment plant at the Gammams Waste Water Treatment Plant.
“This will have a direct impact on lessening the out of pocket cost in the form of rates and taxes paid by the Windhoek residents as the project will partially finance itself,” he added.
The carbon credit project will be a first for Namibia.
In the meantime, the municipality is working on the refurbishment of the Windhoek Biogas Cleaner Development Mechanism Project, which was awarded to the firm Cape Advanced Engineering from South Africa.
The refurbishment is due to start early in 2012 and is expected to be completed within one year.
Johan de Waal of the City of Windhoek said that the project is estimated to be able to generate about N$2 million to N$ 3 million per year.