Maputo — The industrial landfill at Mavoco, in Boane district, 30 kilometres from Maputo, will work for much longer than initially expected because few companies are making use of it.

According to Daniel Fumo, director of Enviroserv, a company dealing with hazardous waste that operates at the landfill, Mavoco, which opened in 2005, was planned to operate for five years, and hence would close in 2010.

However its expected lifespan has now risen to eight years, because the initial prediction of how much waste it would receive has proved a serious overestimate

The total capacity of the landfill is 75 cubic metres, which is roughly equivalent to 70,000 tonnes. Fumo said that Mavoco had expected to receive 300 tonnes a month from the Mozal aluminium smelter alone - but in fact Mozal has only been sending between 200 and 250 tonnes a month.

Only two other companies are using the landfill regularly. They are the brewing company Cervejas de Mocambique (CDM - Beers of Mozambique), and the South African petrochemical giant Sasol, which operates the natural gas treatment plant at Temane, in Inhambane province.

"At the landfill we have three cells to deposit solid waste", said Fumane. "Right now the central cell is practically full, and we shall start on one beside it".

The Mavoco landfill was built to ensure that Mozambican industries would dispose of dangerous solid waste in an environmentally sound fashion. But there are certainly more than three companies in southern Mozambique whose activities generate hazardous wastes.

Five people work at the landfill which is run by the Environment Fund, an institution subordinate to the Ministry for the Coordination of environmental Action.

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