Energy recovery from domestic and agro-waste streams in Uganda: a socioeconomic assessment
Most of the domestic and agro-waste in African cities end up in open dumps and natural water bodies thus causing severe environmental and health problems. These waste streams have resources such as nutrient and energy that can be valorized by transforming them into valuable products. As most cities in Africa grapple with the challenge of energy security, recovering energy from waste offers dual benefits – improved waste management, and provision of reliable energy to households, institutions and commercial entities. The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has developed a number of waste-to-energy business models and has undertaken a feasibility analysis of selected models in several cities across the globe. This report present a socioeconomic assessment of three energy business models, based on feasibility studies carried out in Kampala, Uganda. It assess the potential economic, environmental and social impacts of waste-to-energy business models and provide decision makers with overall cost and benefits of the models to the society and thus justify the need for undertaking such investments. To assess environmental impacts, a life cycle of emissions of agricultural residue and fecal sludge-derived energy sources is evaluated using indicators such as CO2, CH4 and N2O for climate change and other emissions such as SO2 and NOx. A baseline scenario and a system boundary for the business models are identified and a comparison is made of costs and benefits of the model versus a business-as-usual scenario.