The Sultanate is looking into building its own waste disposal plant.
A request for the proposal is currently bring drafted to design, build, own, operate and transfer the plant based on the waste-to-energy (WtE) concept, and is expected to be ready and open by the last quarter of 2024.
Once an investor is found, the plant will target going operational in 2029.
Minister of Development Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Muhammad Juanda bin Haji Abdul Rashid revealed this during deliberations on the budget allocation for the Ministry of Development (MoD) for the 2024/2025 financial year during the 20th session of the Legislative Council (LegCo) meeting yesterday.
“The country produces between 500 to 600 tonnes of waste per day. The data shows that the waste produced by each person is 1.21 kilogrammes per day,” said the minister.
For decades, the minister said, “waste disposal has been done at the landfill at Sungai Paku in the Tutong District. The landfill sits on a 104-hectare land and is forecast to reach its limit by 2030. Therefore another 100 hectares are needed for a new landfill”.
As an alternative effort, he said, “the MoD is looking to stop the use of landfills by constructing a plant using the incinerator system for waste disposal”.
He also said an expression of interest was issued in 2012 for the construction of a waste incinerator plant. The Department of Environment, Parks and Recreation has appointed a consultant to draft the request for proposal documents which will be issued to find eligible investors, he said.
“The construction cost is expected to be very high and the MoD is working with other government agencies, especially the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Department of Energy under the Prime Minister’s Office, to come up with a business model that fits the cost-effective strategy and sustainability objective.”
The minister also said among the expenditure of the 2023/2024 financial year was for the implementation of a Brunei River clean-up project on April 16, 2023.
Until December 2023, the amount of waste collected from the Brunei River amounted to 22,849.45 metric tonnes. – James Kon
