Lack of an integrated solid waste management system in Kigali is undermining the country’s efforts to address climate change, a new environmental report shows.

The Rwanda Environment Management Authority 2013 annual report titled Kigali: State of Environment and Outlook, released recently, has revealed that the delayed establishment of a functional sewage system in Kigali poses significant threat to the environment.

The report recommends that the city creates an integrated solid waste management system to support and protect the environment.

About 2,500 metric tonnes of solid waste have to be disposed every month in Kigali.

The city, according to the report will need to consider integrating its informal waste collection and treatment activities into a formal integrated solid waste management system.

“The work should mandate adequate pay for workers; provide safe working conditions; utilise energy efficient equipment and maintain healthy water quality,” said the report.

While the Nduba landfill in the Kicukiro sector was earmarked as a collection centre to service sectors of the city, experts have questioned its location claiming it’s on a cliff above river Nyabarongo.

READ: Kigali sitting on a sewage time bomb, experts warn

According to Tharcisse Musabyimana, an environmental expert and a lecturer at the University of Rwanda, there is a need for the city authority to solve the solid waste management challenge. The authority is yet to set up a centre for the city’s sewage system.

Late last year the city commissioned a feasibility study on the sewage system but it will need to mobilise around Rwf47.6 billion ($70 million) to put the system in place.

According to Bruno Rangira, the Kigali City Council public relation officer, the sewage project will connect different households and institutions within the city.

It will transfer waste through interconnected pipes. The project is to be 100 per cent sponsored by the European investment bank and work is expected to take 18 months to complete.

Officials from the Rwanda Environment and Management Authority have vowed to keenly follow the concerns raised in a bid to meet the country’s national strategy for climate change and low carbon development.