On Friday, the government and cooperation partners made around 18.4 million euros available to make Mozambique's National Sustainable Waste Management Program viable.

The initiative aims to build sanitary landfills and waste composting facilities, among other things. The first phase of implementation will cover the municipalities of Nampula, Nacala (both in Nampula province) and Pemba, in Cabo Delgado province.

This is a government response to the challenges posed by the country's urbanization, including the rapid increase in the urban population, said the Secretary of State for Land and Environment, Gustavo Dgedge, who led the launch of the initiative

The beneficiary municipalities were selected on the basis of technical criteria related to their relative readiness to set up waste treatment infrastructures.

As part of the overall value of the project, the government is expected to contribute 700 million meticais towards the construction of the infrastructure and will use the revenue from the forthcoming Environmental Packaging Tax (TAE).

"The project is expected to result in around 88,000 tCO2e of direct emission reductions and 55,000 tCO2e of indirect emission reductions during the implementation period," he said, quoted by the News.