About The NAMA Biogas Project

Key project information

Responsible Partners

1. National Environment Management Authority (NEMA)
2. National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC)
3. Kakira Sugar Limited
4. The 5 pilot cities of Jinja, Masaka, Mbale, Mbarara and Kampala Capital City Authority.
5. Ministry of Local Government
6. Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
7. Ministry of Water and Environment (Climate Change Department).
8. Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.
9. Urban Authorities Association Uganda
10. Electricity Regulatory Authority

Project Board

1. Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (Chairperson)
2. Resident Representative, UNDP (Co-chairperson)
3. Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development
4. Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water and Environment
5. Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries
6. Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government 
7. Executive Director, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA)
8. Managing Director, National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC)
9. Managing Director, Kakira Sugar Limited
10. Chief Executive Officer, Electricity Regulatory Authoirty (ERA)
11. Executive Director, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA)
12. City Clerk, Mbale City
13. City Clerk, Jinja City
14. City Clerk, Masaka City
15. City Clerk, Mbarara City

Project Technical Committee (PTC)

1. Ag. Principal Energy Officer, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development/ Project Coordinator - Chairperson
2. National Coordinator, Climate Aggregator Platform, UNDP – Co-Chairperson
3. Project Manager, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development
4. Project Finance and Administrative Assistant, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development
5. Energy Officer, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development
6. Economist, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development
7. Senior Climate Change Officer, Ministry of Water and Environment
8. Senior Inspector, Ministry of Local Government 
9. Environment Inspector, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA)
10. Senior Manager Sewerage Services, National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC)
11. Systems enginner, Kakira Sugar Limited
12. Manager Environmental Monitoring and Compliance, Electricity Regulatory Authoirty (ERA)
13. Manager Waste and Sanitation, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA)
14. Senior Environment Officer, Mbale City
15. Principal Natural Resources Officer, Jinja City
16. Senior Environment Officer, Masaka City
17. Environment Officer, Mbarara City

Approach of the project

The project aims to facilitate innovation and technology transfer, with supportive policies and strategies given that in the past, MSW-based electricity generation in Ugandan municipalities were not technically or financially feasible due to: 

• Lack of investment capital
• Low capacity to implement projects (for example the municipal composting project); and
• Inability to attract private sector investment due to unattractive internal rates of return (IRR) on investments given the current market situation. 

In response to the gaps identified, the project envisions demonstration of biogas for energy generation, capacity development of municipalities/ cities, market facilitation and municipal/city level project pipeline development to boost waste to energy approaches in the country.

Interventions

1. Institutional strengthening and capacity building
Here, interventions aim to increase the institutional and technical capacities of selected municipalities for effective IWM of municipal waste and wastewater. At the municipal level waste management plans have a key role to play in achieving sustainable waste management. However, due to capacity constraints and a lack of information these plans have largely not included considerations of waste-to-energy potential.  The project has reviewed and compiled existing data on organic waste stream quantities and composition in the Cities of Jinja, Masaka, Mbale, Mbarara, Kampala and has updated of the IWM plans to include waste to energy considerations. 

Also, provision of disposal/off-taker fees for waste disposal has been included in the amended waste management ordinances. In addition, the project has supported sensitization campaigns and raising awareness in Integrated Waste Management in at least 11 Cities and 8 Municipalities. 

2. Demonstration and investment 
Under this component, the project focused on demonstration and investment, with the aim of addressing barriers related to technical and financial feasibility as well as reconciling the fact that there are currently no feasible delivery models and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) for MSW-based biogas plants in operation. The project intends to (I) Demonstrate the productive use of organic components of municipal and agro-processing waste streams, wastewater and sewerage sludge; (II) Demonstrate their technical maturity and sustainability of chosen business models; (III) Generate operational experiences for further optimization.

3. Scaling up the use of MSW-based biogas technologies and knowledge management 
In the third component, the project focuses on scaling up biogas to electricity facilities in other Cities and Municipalities through boosting technical, operational and economic feasibility assessments and supporting implementation of biogas to electricity plants. 

4. Knowledge management, monitoring and evaluation
In the fourth component, the project has compiled and disseminated lessons learnt from project activity implementation. The project has also developed training manuals and actions plans for gender mainstreaming in Integrated Waste Management and organic waste sorting.