Tag: Tatva Global Renewable Energy

Government signs service agreement with Tatva for waste management project

The Finance Ministry has signed the service agreement for a renegotiated waste management contract with India-based Tatva Global Renewable Energy last week.

Newspaper Haveeru reported that the government will pay MVR8million as a mobilisation fee to commence the waste management project within 45 days under the service agreement signed on Thursday (October 31), which includes all the details for implementation.

The company has been provided a 700,000 square foot plot in Thilafushi as well as the garbage trucks used by the Male’ City Council. While Tatva will dispose of garbage collected at the waste dump in Male’ under the first phase of the project, the company will begin providing a garbage collection service to households in the capital under the second phase.

Each phase is expected to take 18 months for completion.

The previous administration of former president Mohamed Nasheed signed an agreement with Tatva in May 2011 as part of efforts to generate power from recycling waste gathered from Male’ as well as surrounding inhabited and resort islands.

However, by December last year, President Dr Mohamed Waheed’s administration had announced it was in the process of renegotiating Tatva’s agreement in a bid to replace the deal with what Environment Minister Dr Mariyam Shakeela at the time called a “mutually beneficial” agreement.

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No waste spill in Thilafushi lagoon: Male’ City Council

The Male’ City Council (MCC) has disputed “inaccurate” local media reports that a large waste spill occurred in the Thilafushi (‘garbage island’) lagoon last night.

Large amounts of garbage were reported to have accumulated in the Thilafushi lagoon due to “spillover” while a barge was off loading waste from the capital Male’, according to Sun Online.

However, MCC Councillor Mohamed Abdul Kareem, the council member responsible for waste management, told Minivan News today (June 29) that local media reports were “not accurate” and that no garbage spill occurred on Thilafushi last night.

“Due to the bad weather this past month the jetty was damaged – half of it was broken and it has been damaged for two weeks – however repairs were completed yesterday,” Kareem explained.

“Earlier this month because of the high winds, some waste was carried into the harbor, but not a big amount,” he added. “There was no spill, it’s not an issue.”

Kareem explained that trash tends to “line the [harbour] area” and moves from one side to the other in relation to the wind, current, and tides, however due to the harbor’s shape does not easily float out into the open sea.

“Thirty vessels dump trash there daily, so there might be something in the area, but it’s a dead end,” said Kareem.

“Items have been floating [in the harbor] over a month, but there was not a big spill or dump,” he noted.

Senior officials from the MCC were sent to inspect Thilafushi last month and confirmed operations were “very organised”, according to Kareem.

“Cleaning [waste that accumulates in the harbor] is ongoing,” said Kareem. “The area is well maintained by the Male’ City Council.”

Thilafushi rehabilitation stalled

Thilafushi management was transferred to the Male’ City Council (MCC) in 2010 as part of the Decentralisation Act. Accordingly, a contract was signed in 2011 with the Indian-based company Tatva Global Renewable Energy to rehabilitate the island, manage garbage generated in Male’, on nearby inhabited islands and resorts, as well as implement a system designed to generate power from recycling waste.

However, President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik’s administration announced it was renegotiating the Tatva agreement in December 2012 to reach what Environment Minister Dr Mariyam Shakeela referred to at the time as a “mutually beneficial” agreement.

In response the Male’ City Council (MCC) accused authorities of trying to “sabotage” the deal.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Environment and Social Safeguards Coordinator Ibrahim Mohamed told Minivan News earlier this year that plans to rehabilitate Thilafushi have been stalled due to procedural “hiccups”.

“The World Bank (WB) is not happy, because Thilafushi is not a managed site,” said Mohamed. “There were hiccups in environmental safeguards.”

In order to ensure waste management on Thilafushi adhered to proper environmental safety standards, the government has been seeking assistance to rehabilitate the island.

“During the public private partnership that was [previously] announced, Tatva was contracted to do a proper landfill and incinerator, etc. They were investing US$15 million, but then when the government changed [in February 2012] there were hiccups in all these public private partnership contracts, and they left,” recounted Mohamed.

He explained that Tatva was ultimately brought back to negotiate a new contract.

“First there was the idea of throwing them out, but then [Tatva was] brought [back] in and told to sell some shares to local companies, i.e. water and sewerage. [So] they finally agreed to form a consortium with local companies and invest,” Mohamed continued.

“Within next two years we will see a better, rehabilitated facility [at Thilafushi],” he added.

While Thilafushi waste management remains a contentious issue, other projects are being implemented in Raa and Ari Atolls – funded, respectively, by the World Bank and Climate Change Trust Fund (CCTF) – in an effort to develop alternative processing sites.

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Government uncertain over waste management future as Tatva negotiations continue

The government remains locked in negotiations to find a “permanent” waste management solution in the Maldives following concerns about a recent build up of garbage in Male’, State Environment Minister Abdul Matheen Mohamed has said.

Matheen told Minivan News that although immediate concerns about garbage levels in the capital had been dealt with by Male’ City Council (MCC), which was in the process of “clearing” waste disposal sites on a daily basis – uncertainty remained on a long-term solution to dealing with trash.

At present, waste from across the country is shipped over to the island of Thilafushi near Male’ – an island that serves as the country’s key site for processing and burning garbage.

Certain councillors and MPs from Male’ last week claimed that a failure to deal with a build up of waste in the capital in recent months had escalated into a “national disaster” that could have potential health and safety implications for the public if not addressed.

However, Matheen added that the Finance Ministry’s decision last month to provide an estimated MVR 7 million (US$454,000) in funding to the MCC to try and clear trash from waste sites in the capital had already shown positive results.

“The MCC is clearing waste daily, the crisis is over,” he said. “Right now I believe that trying to manage waste in Male’ is not the best solution. If this waste can be shifted to Thilafushi that may be for the best.”

State negotiations

Matheen said that the government was committed to seeking financing for alternative waste management schemes, while also renegotiating a deal signed by the former government with Tatva Global Renewable Energy.

The government of former President Mohamed Nasheed signed a contract with Tatva in 2011 to allow the India-based company to take over handling of waste in the capital – as well as from nearby inhabited islands and resorts properties.

The agreement also outlined a means of generating power from recycling waste products brought to Thilafushi in an attempt to cut down on trash being burned.

By December last year, President Dr Mohamed Waheed’s administration announced it was in the process of renegotiating Tatva’s agreement in a bid to replace the deal with what Environment Minister Dr Mariyam Shakeela at the time called a “mutually beneficial” agreement.

Just last week, Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad said that although the new agreement with Tatva was yet to be signed, a deal was expected to be finalised in the coming days.

However, Matheen today claimed that no agreement had been reached as yet over the negotiations, which he claimed appeared to be nearing some form of conclusion.

“The process has taken so much time. We will have to take a decision soon [on whether to sign the Tatva deal],” he said.

According to Matheen, the discussions with Tatva Global Renewable Energy had been complicated by having to find an agreement between a number of different parties; including the government, the MCC, service providers like the State Electric Company Limited (STELCO) and management at Thilafushi.

He alleged that another concern about the deal was the need for Tatva itself to find sufficient investment to back its own part of the proposed waste management scheme.

A spokesperson for Tatva was not responding to calls from Minivan News at time of press.

Matheen said that the government was waiting to see if an agreement could be reached with Tatva over the deal, adding that authorities would otherwise seek to open discussions with other service providers to try and find an alternate means of waste management.

Male’ clean up

While the negotiations continue, Male’ Councillor Mohamed Abdul Kareem confirmed to Minivan News that despite difficulties earlier this month, the council had now almost dealt fully with waste build-up in the capital after receiving funding from the Finance Ministry.

“The only problem we have had with waste management has been the budgeting issues, other than that, we have the technical expertise to clean the waste,” he said.

Kareem claimed that upon receiving funds from the government, the MCC had been able to hire special dhonis (boats) to clear garbage from disposal sites in Male’ that had been allowed to build up over a period of several months. The build up of waste had led to disputes between the council and various state bodies over responsibility for clearing the waste.

Waste being cleared from Male' Saturday (June 1)

With a proportion of funding now having been received by the MCC from the Finance Minsitry, Kareem said the council had been able to clear waste yard number two in Male’ of rubbish.  The site was now being “treated” to try and reduce odours that had built up at the site as a result of recent wet weather, before it would again start receiving waste.

He added that the site was presently being cleared and would not be temporarily open for use until the council completed its treatment and renovation.

Kareem claimed that as long as the government continued to provide funding for the MCC to handle waste management in and around the capital, the MCC did not expect to have any similar problems cleaning waste in the future.

He alleged last month that following the initial signing of the Tatva waste management deal under the previous government in May 2011, the MCC had not been provided with a budget for waste management – even after the deal was stalled by the present administration.

Waste concerns

In April, divisions were reported to have arisen between different ministerial bodies and the private sector over who should take responsibility for garbage being dumped into the sea.

Earlier this year, Minivan News reported that government authorities were working on trying to create functional waste management projects that would serve as an alternative to shipping waste to Thilafushi, despite numerous failed attempts in the past.

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Government agrees to US$454,000 waste management funding; councillors warn situation a “disaster”

The Ministry of Finance has agreed to provide Male’ City Council (MCC) with an estimated MVR 7 million (US$454,000) in funding this month to try and alleviate a build up of waste in and around the capital that local councillors and MPs claim poses a “national disaster”.

Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad told Minivan News today that amid concerns about a build-up of waste in the capital, funding was being granted to the MCC to deal with the situation following an ongoing dispute over responsibility for managing garbage.  The Finance Minister said he was unaware of the exact amount of funding provided to the municipal council at time of press.

The funding was announced as the MCC continues to accuse some state officials within the current government of having failed to provide it with a budget to deal with waste management for over a year in an attempt to discredit the work of its councillors. The majority of the MCC’s councillors are represented by members of the opposition Maldivan Democratic Party (MDP).

State funding

According to Jihad, funding will be provided to the MCC ahead of the expected signing over the next three weeks of a renegotiated waste management contract with India-based Tatva Global Renewable Energy. Once the deal is agreed, Tatva will take over handling of waste in the capital, as well as from nearby inhabited islands and resorts properties.

The previous government of former president Mohamed Nasheed had signed an agreement with Tatva in May 2011 as part of efforts to generate power from recycling waste gathered from Male’, as well as surrounding inhabited and resort islands.

By December last year, President Dr Mohamed Waheed’s administration had announced it was in the process of renegotiating Tatva’s agreement in a bid to replace the deal with what Environment Minister Dr Mariyam Shakeela at the time called a “mutually beneficial” agreement.

Minister Jihad has said that although the new agreement with Tatva has yet to be signed, a deal was expected to be finalised this week, while funding would also be given to the MCC to try and alleviate the waste issue in the meantime.

State Environment Minister Abdul Matheen Mohamed said that while his department was not directly involved with dealing with the waste management issue, it had tried to “help” find a solution by meeting with the MCC and the Finance Ministry.

Matheen added that the ministry had informed the MCC that if it was unable to handle the capital’s waste management, the Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) could take responsibility for the matter until the new Tatva contract was expected to come into place on June 15 this year.

However, following discussions with the MCC, he claimed that a lack of finance has been identified as the key issue preventing processing of the waste.

According to Matheen, the Finance Ministry last week agreed to provide MVR 6.8 million (US$441,000) in funding to the MCC, with the council in return giving “confirmation” that a clean-up operation would be undertaken.

“The MCC have said they will be able to clean up the waste if we can provide finance. However, we are still seeing things are not going well,” he claimed.

Matheen also rejected allegations by the MCC that the government had sought to purposefully undermine the council and its work by not providing funding to oversee waste in the capital.

“The ministry respects local councils and we will help them when needed. So far we haven’t received any additional requests for help [from the MCC],” he said.

Clean up challenges

Male’ councillor Mohamed Abdul Kareem today confirmed that the Finance Ministry had agreed to provide funding to cover the MCC’s outstanding debts for equipment hire and other costs related to handling waste.

However, he alleged that following the initial signing of the Tatva waste management deal under the previous government in May 2011, the MCC had not been provided with a budget for waste management – even after the deal was stalled by the present administration.

“As the MCC does not have its own bank account, we are required to deposit our revenue to the government’s own finances,” Kareem said. “While we are collecting revenue from resorts for dealing with waste, we are not directly receiving the funds.”

Kareem claimed that the issue of waste around the capital had become increasingly severe in the last three to four weeks as a result of both ongoing financial limitations and recent adverse weather that prevented barges being able to transport waste.

Kareem added that with the council’s waste areas filling up rapidly in the capital and a limited access to heavy equipment to process garbage, the situation had escalated into a “disaster”.

He said that following meetings with the finance ministry this month, funding had now been obtained, with the majority of the money expected to cover outstanding debts resulting from having to hire specialised equipment to process and transport the waste.

Kareem told Minivan New that efforts were now underway to secure the services of special dhotis to try and shift waste over to the nearby island of Thilafushi, which serves as the country’s key site for processing and burning garbage.

“We are discussing at present hiring a number of 100 foot-long dhonis to try and transfer the waste as it has been there so long, which makes things more difficult. Just last night we transferred 29 truck loads [of garbage] to Thilafushi.”

Councillor Kareem said he did accept that there were some parties within President Waheed’s coalition that had shown an interest in trying to resolve the waste management problem, but accused other representatives in the current administration of lacking sincerity in their commitments.

Kareem said the MCC presently understood that Tatva Global Renewable Energy was now expected to take over responsibility for waste management later next month at part of a deal with the government that would require the council to hand over all its facilities to the company “free of charge”.

“They will have to clean up the capital’s waste, though we will be expected to provide our facilities to them as part of the concession agreement,” he said. “It’s not an ideal situation, but we don’t have any other options at present.”

Protest

With funding now agreed, Ahmed Nihan, Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) MP for Vili-Male’, said residents on the island remained concerned this week about the potential health implications of a build up of garbage on a barge near to the island.

Nihan joined an estimated 50 residents from the island on Friday to protest about a perceived lack of action from both the state and the MCC to try and resolve the issue.

Before leaving Male’ for campaigning purposes yesterday, he believed there had been little change in the situation, despite being informed of efforts by the MCC to try and secure the services of dhonis to try and ship the waste away from the island to Thilafushi.

“I have been asked to host a conference called between the finance Ministry and the MCC on my return to find a solution to the issue,” Nihan said. “It’s all a big mess.”

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Decision on future of waste management project expected within a week: State Minister Matheen

A decision over whether to cancel a contract with India-based Tatva Global Renewable Energy for the provision of a waste management system in the Male’ area will be taken by the Environment Ministry this week, according to local media.

A final decision on the contract – which was last month in the process of renegotiation between the current government and Tatva Global Renewable Energy – is expected to be taken within the next five days, State Minister for Environment and Energy Abdul Matheen Mohamed has reportedly confirmed.

Matheen claimed Monday (December 25) that final discussions with the company were set to take place over whether the ministry would seek to scrap the contract, Local newspaper Haveeru has reported.

Former President Mohamed Nasheed’s administration signed the original waste management agreement with Tatva in May 2011 in a deal that was supposed to have generated power from recycling waste. The scheme was also said to be part of attempts to improve the overall standards of waste management in Male’ and the nearby “garbage island”, Thilafushi.

The deal, like the airport development agreement with India-based GMR declared void by the government last month, was been backed by International Finance Corporation (IFC), an affiliate organisation of the World Bank, according to the Inter Press Service news agency.

However, parts of the agreement were ordered halted by the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in August this year over alleged concerns about the contract approved by the former government.

The ACC received concerns that the project would lead to an anticipated loss of MVR 1 billion (US$64.8 million) in government finances over a 20 year operating period, according to local news reports at the time.

“Mutually beneficial”

Environment Minister Dr Mariyam Shakeela announced earlier this month that discussions were taking place as to whether the previous contract agreed with Tatva could be replaced with a more “mutually beneficial” agreement.

“Provided they perform within the time frame given, the contract will remain with Tatva,” she said in response to whether the company would retain its role on the waste management project.

However, Male’ City Council (MCC) has criticised the renegotiation attempts, accusing the state of trying to sabotage the agreement outright for political gain.

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Male’ City Council accuses government of sabotaging Tatva Global waste management project

The government has announced is it in the process of renegotiating a waste management contract for the Male’ area with India-based Tatva Global Renewable Energy – leading to criticism by the opposition-dominated Male’ City Council (MCC) that the state is trying to sabotage the agreement for political gain.

Former President Mohamed Nasheed’s administration signed the original waste management agreement with Tatva in May 2011 in a deal that was supposed to have generated power from recycling waste. The scheme was also said to be part of attempts to improve the overall standards of waste management in Male’ and the nearby “garbage island”, Thilafushi.

The deal, like the airport development agreement with India-based GMR declared void by the government this week, was been backed by International Finance Corporation (IFC), an affiliate organisation of the World Bank, according to the Inter Press Service news agency.

However parts of the agreement were ordered halted by the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in August this year over alleged concerns about the contract, which was also signed under the former government.

The ACC received concerns that the project would lead to an anticipated loss of MVR 1 billion (US$64.8 million) in government finances over a 20 year operating period, according to local news service Haveeru.

ACC President Hassan Luthfee had phone switched off at the time of going to press.

In correspondence sent to Minivan News this week, Dr Mariyam Shakeela, who has served as Environment Minister for the last few months and was most recently appointed acting Human Rights Minister, announced that a previous contract agreed with Tatva was expected to be replaced with a “mutually beneficial” agreement.

“Provided they perform within the time frame given, the contract will remain with Tatva,” she said in response to whether the company would retain its role on the waste management project.

Dr Shakeela, who did not respond to a question on the nature of the government’s concerns with the previous contract, said the time frame for the deal was “under negotiation”.

“[The] whole agreement is being formulated,” she added.

A spokesperson for Tatva Global Renewable Energy was not responding to calls from Minivan News at time of press.

MCC criticism

However, the MCC has claimed that following a visit of senior officials from Tatva Global Renewable Energy between November 18 to November 20, a failure by the government to involve its councillors in the process and ongoing delays to commencing the project had let it to conclude that the deal would be eventually cancelled. The MCC said it expected the project to eventually be cancelled, despite increasing problems with waste management in the capital.

MCC councillor Mohamed Abdul Kareem told Minivan News that he had been informed senior Tatva executives had been invited to the Maldives for several days earlier this month to meet with ministers and stakeholders involved in the energy project.

“However, I don’t know what the discussions were focused on. Many groups were there; the Finance Ministry, other government departments, the Attorney General’s Office and the State Electricity Company (STELCO) were all there,” he said.

However, Kareem questioned why the MCC – as a major stakeholder in its own waste management project – had also not been invited to the discussions to express its concerns over the need for the waste management project.

“The issue has been continually delayed and the waste management problem is getting worse, while we don’t have the budget to meet our waste management needs,” he claimed.

Kareem alleged that while the government was providing small amounts of funding for waste management, he believed attempts were purposely being made to exacerbate the capital’s refuse problems in order to undermine the municipal council’s work. Kareem added that he was presently consulting lawyers over where the MCC stood on the waste management project.

“We don’t have enough budget to collect the waste, meanwhile the collection centres in Male’ are full and waste is openly being burnt on Thilafushi,” he claimed. “I think this is a game [for the government], I am certain they will cancel this contract.”

Kareem claimed that with an estimated 150,000 inhabitants in Male’ each generating a kilogram of waste per day on average, managing the capital’s waste management was the largest logistical operations in the entire country on a daily basis.

“We are dealing with 150,00 kg of waste everyday, we don’t have efficient enough operations for this. We don’t have enough boat fuel and the excavators we use are 20 to 30 years old. “[Wednesday] even, the starter motor failed on one of these,” he said.

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