Around 1.6 million tonnes of waste was dumped at the landfill site in Hafeera last year – a drop of about 400,000 tonnes from 2018.
Domestic waste was at the top of the list with 546,822 tonnes, which is 36 per cent of the waste collected between October 2018 and September last year.
RECYCLING
Construction waste came in second at 487,940 tonnes, which is 31pc, followed by commercial and industrial waste at 397,544 tonnes (25pc), and agricultural waste at 127,350 tonnes (8pc).
This was revealed by Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Minister Essam Khalaf, who told MPs in writing that the total waste reached 1.957m tonnes in 2018 – 1.16m domestic, commercial and industrial waste, and 831,609 tonnes of construction waste.
Mr Khalaf will appear at Tuesday’s Parliament session to discuss an expected further drop in these figures in the coming years as a new construction waste recycling plant has started operations.
“We expect dumped waste to drop to 1m tonnes by the end of this year from the current 1.6m tonnes,” he said in writing.
“We have started operations at a new construction waste recycling plant and we are working on a new plant to recycle tyres in addition to a new fertilisers factory using agricultural waste.
“The ministry is also working to appoint a consultancy firm to issue a tender for a special plant to process waste – it will work on recycling operations for general waste and turning the waste into energy.”
He added that Urbaser Bahrain, which carries out waste management operations in the Northern and Southern governorates, has been awarded a contract to run the landfill and construct necessary sorting and recycling facilities as part of a plan to extend the site’s lifespan until 2025.
“An additional municipal plot has been allocated to re-engineer the landfill site and a special contract is set to be issued whenever procedures are complete as we have already viewed studies on eligible companies that are capable of handling the responsibility,” he said.
“We have already finalised arrangements for a temporary fertilisers’ establishment that deals with green waste, as we also issued a tender for a massive factory in November last year.”
Meanwhile, in response to another question Mr Khalaf told MPs in writing that around BD10m was collected as infrastructure tax since its introduction in 2017.
He said levies totalling BD14.6m have been issued between January 2017 and September last year, while BD9.5m was collected.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Under the 2015 Infrastructure Cost and Development Law, a levy of BD12 per square metre is issued on all developments in a bid to fund infrastructure projects such as roads network, sewerage systems, electricity and water schemes.
The tax aims to support the state budget by collecting money from property developers to fund infrastructure within undeveloped areas.
The levy is also applied on Bahraini nationals and expatriates who tear down their rundown homes and rebuild new residential properties.
mohammed@gdn.com.bh
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