Waste to Energy: Samoa and the Philippines
Time: 31 October 2002, 13:30-14:30 Location: Salle C-2 Chair: Cecile Collas, UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) Presenters: Hon J Hugh Faulkner, Sustainable Project Management
Anne Dimitrov, Engineering School, Geneva Participants: Melanie Zipperer, WHO, Communication
Cholpon Dyikanova, Community and Business Forum, Kyrgyz Reporter: John Copland (ICVolunteers) Languages: English Key words:
The Hon J Hugh Faulkner of Sustainable Project Management (SPM) first described his organization and its function, and the process it develops as a paid broker between donors and the public/private unities involved in developing a project. As specific examples he described the waste projects being undertaken in Apia, Samoa, and Batangas Bay in the Philippines.
Sustainable Project Management (SPM) is a not -for-profit international business development organization which was established in 1995. Its objective is to create locally owned public-private partnerships that operate commercially viable businesses to provide improved waste, water and energy services to developing communities. They have worked on projects in Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe and are currently engaged in a municipal solid waste project in the Philippines and two projects in the Pacific Region.
To develop these projects SPM uses a sustainable development tool known as the Mixed-Capitol Public Private Partnership (MC-PPP) to create these businesses. The basic elements of the MC-PPP are:
- The public sector as an investor
- The reduction of transactional costs
- Financing borne by the project itself
- Possibility of replication
In these joint ventures the public sector, in addition to the investment of land and services, brings a knowledge of the local laws and context; the private sector (including donors) provides money and technology.
The waste-to-energy trial in Apia, Samoa, funded by the municipality and the New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID), was developed to test the viability of low cost in-ground anaerobic digestion without heating, sludge transportation or mechanical mixing. The project goal is to generate sufficient value from the biogas output to fund the disposal of solid waste in Apia and, in time, for all of Samoa. It has been calculated that if Samoa carries on with its current approach to waste management it would cost them about million over the next 20 years. However, adopting the MC-PPP model the facility will generate an internal rate of return of around 20% over the same time period.
The Government of Samoa has made formal commitments to this project and has already provided the land for the technology trial and the waste facility, plus the necessary power and water. The project began in August 2000 and will be completed by December 2003.
The project in Batangas Province in the Philippines will benefit from much of the research being done for the Samoa project, although the scale will be vastly increased, the population of the area being second only to Manila in the country.
The project will provide for the first time a fully integrated waste collection, treatment and disposal service to all consumers, from poor households to industrial sites, This project is also in keeping with new environmental laws and programmes the national government is currently implementing which are designed to improve the overall management of waste throughout the Philippines by 2006.
The waste facility is to be operational by the end of 2003 and the Public-Private Partnership to manage the waste facility is also to be operational by the same time.
