Nakuru County has acquired a 25-acre piece of land to set up an integrated waste recovery facility, Governor Susan Kihika has said.
She said solid waste management is a major challenge for the county with far reaching consequences on health and quality of life for residents.
Construction of the waste facility will be funded with support from the Japanese government.
Speaking after a closed-door meeting with Japan Ambassador Okaniwa Ken, Kihika said the county was seeking assistance to develop a strategic institutional framework of solid waste management and the capacity to handle the growing quantities of solid waste in urban areas of the city.
She noted that Nakuru was in a fragile ecosystem being home to Lake Nakuru, an important water body under International Lake Environment Committee monitoring.
Kihika said other areas of cooperation with Japan include housing and urban planning, agriculture, green energy and transport.
She said her administration wants to develop a public mobility master plan and implement it to enhance connectivity between the city ad urban centers.
“The County Government wants to put in place the missing links and construct internal link roads within the urban centers whose long term effect would be to contribute to the economic development of the county and the surrounding areas,” she said.
The county boss said her administration required assistance to develop the master plan as a priority to address the intra and inter linkages of service, goods and people.
She said Nakuru was the most urbanized county with six municipalities, six townships and 20 market centers.
On housing, Governor Kihika said the county prioritised the development of housing stock with the current target standing at 10,000 units.
She revealed that Nakuru County Government had 5,469 housing units which underscored the need to construct more.
“The County government in partnership with the National government and a private developer is constructing 605 at the Bondeni Affordable Housing project which is in line with the national development plan of providing 200,000 housing units for all income levels,” she said.
Kihika said her administration was seeking collaborations to stimulate local and international consortiums, development agencies and businesses in the development of housing stocks.
She said Nakuru being a business hub, there was need for technical support to improve value chain, value addition, farmers’ capacity development and enhancement of agricultural services.
Kihika commended the Japanese government for sending experts to help in the operationalisation of the county’s urban observatory and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) impacts.
The experts include a geographic information systems specialist, urban planner, landscape architect and an environmentalist.
The Ambassador said Japan supports numerous projects in Nakuru including Menengai and Ol-Karia geothermal plants and training of staff working in various geothermal programmes.
Ambassador Okaniwa said that in the latest partnership, Japan will help small holder farmers understand market dynamics and the profitable crops to grow at different seasons.
He said this would help farmers increase revenue and urged the county government to consider expanding the programme in the future.
Ambassador Okaniwa said the Japanese Government is also supporting the construction of Naivasha Industrial Park and and processing of green energy.
He added that plans are underway for a Japanese investor to build a mosquito coil manufacturing company in Nakuru which would support the pyrethrum sector.