From eyesore to paradise

Source : Kutlwano

Author : Thamani Shabani

Location : Gaborone

Event : Feature Article

Fifteen years ago, the place was associated with waste and the only people who frequented it were scavengers, those human no-goods otherwise called bo-bashi.

Every day after the rubbish trucks had finished unloading waste, the scavengers would start rummaging through the huge piles of garbage searching for something to eat and sell.

For many who lived closer to the area, the Gaborone landfill was a source of misery thanks to thousands of flies and stench from it. Very few ever thought anything good let alone a mall could come out of the landfill.

The Gaborone landfill was commissioned in 1994 with a lifespan of 10 years, but it was not until 30th September 2009, that the council locked its gates. Another landfill had just been built at Gamodubu lands along the Molepolole road.

Fast forward to 2013 and you will not find anything to suggest that a beautiful recreational park situated just behind the showground east of Gaborone is actually sitting on top of the old landfill. All the old dumpsite`s 2048 hectares will soon be a place for competitive sport: walking, track and field sports, bicycle riding, horseback riding and mountain biking.

As the Gaborone City Council`s Desmond Tshotlego put its “it will be a place for people of all ages and backgrounds to come for a picnic, a friendly ball game or some solitude.”

And so, it shall be that what was once the city`s eyesore will become an urban oasis replete with wildlife haunts similar to what you find in some pristine wildlife destination.

Only, the city based site will be a whole lot cheaper in terms of the price you pay to use enter and use it and its close proximity to the city.

But the city council wants to milk the old landfill for all its worth and will not only stop at turning it into a beautiful recreational park. The council wants to pump methane gas from it. Landfills normally have huge amounts of methane gas that built up from rotting rubbish but remained trapped in the ground. In this regard, Gaborone City Council has approached Vasteras City in Sweden through a twining agreement to conduct a feasibility study that will quantify the gas and advise whether extracting methane for other uses such as cooking gas supply would be feasible, cost effective and sustainable.

“We will be waiting for Vasteras City to finish off their study which they promised to start end of February this year,” says Tshotlego.

Tshotlego warns failure to fully extract methane could prove dangerous in the future, as the gas is explosive.

In fact Tshotlego is a worried man. Some land owners around the dumpsite have been allocating land to businesses without the consent of the city council. This he says, is dangerous as one day the gas may just decide to explode, and woe to those whose offices are built atop its explosive veins.ENDS

Teaser:

Every day after the rubbish trucks had finished unloading waste, the scavengers would start rummaging through the huge piles of garbage searching for something to eat and sell.