From the EIA report of the proposed Waste to Energy Plant (WTE), the obligations of the Government of Mauritius are stated in the Letter of Intent of the Board of Investment (BOI) dated 5 May 2006 (ref: MLP/HP/05-05-06)2, namely the following two conditions:

• Condition (b): A waste procurement agreement which takes into account the tipping fee and the nature of waste (segregated or unsegregated) to be provided to the proposed waste to energy plant and the implication thereof, if signed between the Ministry of Local Government and Gamma-Civic Ltd.

• Condition (d): A Power Purchase Agreement between the Central Electricity Board (CEB) and your company is signed with respect to the purchase of electricity from your company.

With regard to Condition (b), the BOI, in another letter dated 29 September 2006 (ref: MLP/HP/29-09-06)3 BOI confirmed that Government has agreed to an allocation of 900tons of solid waste per day to Gamma-Civic Ltd as from 2009.

The above conditions clearly set out the obligations of the Government of Mauritius towards the Promoters of the WTE Project, through its enforcement agency the Ministry of Local Government for waste allocation and through the parastatal body, Central Electricity Board (CEB) for the purchase of electricity produced.

However what is unclear is condition (a) of the Letter of BOI of 5 May 2006 that devolves the responsibility to the Promoters of the WTE Project of determining the calorific value of the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in Mauritius through a characterisation study.

Determination of the Net Calorific Value (NCV) of the municipal solid waste is crucial for a Waste to Energy Plant as a minimum NCV is a prerequisite for a self sustainable combustion for energy production without the use of auxiliary fuel. But NCV is one of the determinant factors together with the waste components such as hazardous wastes fraction, plastic fraction (in particular the precursors of dioxins and furans), organic fraction, moisture content, etc. as they have direct implications on the toxicity of the wastes generated by a WTE Plant.

Furthermore one would expect the MSW Provider (Ministry of Local Government) to be responsible for the waste characterisation study instead of the Promoters. Hence the contractual and legal responsibility of providing a MSW with waste characteristics as determined by the Promoters is unclear. This also has implications for the power purchase agreement as the Promoters will have contractual obligation to generate electricity for the CEB. In the event that the Promoters cannot meet his obligations because of MSW with less than the minimum calorific value, then it is likely that the MSW Provider will be responsible for loss of revenue from the sale of electricity and any liability arising from the non fulfilment of the contractual obligations towards the CEB.

Conclusion: It is clear that the availability of municipal solid waste and its characteristics are central issues that should have been assessed as part of the feasibility of the waste to energy project.
These two issues are addressed below.

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2 in Annex B2 of the EIA report
3 in Annex B3 of the EIA report