First decentralised pilot launched at Shaurimoyo and two day meeting to finalise the Integrated Policy and Legislation on Waste Management for African Nations

A two day working group meeting was jointly organised by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Zanzibar Environmental Management Authority (ZEMA) on 6-7 September, 2017 in Zanzibar. The objective of the meeting was to finalise the Integrated Policy and Legislations on Waste Management for African Nations. The meeting was inaugurated by Hon’ble Salama Aboud Talib, the Minister of Land, Water, Energy and Environment, Government of Zanzibar and Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General, CSE and Sheha Mjaja, Director, Zanzibar Environmental Management Authority. The two day meeting was attended by Task Force members from Ghana, Tanzania, Swaziland, Namibia, Ethiopia and Zanzibar. All together, 25 participants attended the programme.

Also, on 6th September, 2017, a decentralised pilot for 200 households was inaugurated by CSE, ZEMA and Zanzibar Urban Municipal Council (ZUMC) in Shaurimoyo, Stone Town, Zanzibar. The waste management team had earlier been to Zanzibar in July, 2017 to do scoping for the pilot and mapping of households who shall fall under the pilot.

Sessions

The following sessions were taken during the meeting:

a) Inaugural Session: The welcome address was given by Sheha Mjaja, Director General, ZEMA. And the first session was taken by Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General,CSE on the need for waste management in developing economies.

b) Country presentations: The participating countries presented their country profile on waste and discussed the existing status of waste management, legislative framework for waste, major challenges, best practices etc. 

c) Waste classification and Inventorisation: Dr DD Basu and Swati Singh Sambyal discussed the overview on waste classification and inventorisation.

d) Policy Framework for Integrated Waste Management: Swati Singh Sambyal briefly addressed the principles to adopt integrated waste management, proposed policy outline and regulatory framework.

e) Launch ceremony of Decentralised Pilot in Zanzibar: The first pilot on decentralised pilot for 200 households(HHs) was launched and inaugurated by CSE, ZEMA and ZUMC in Shaurimoyo, Stone Town, Zanzibar. One bin and two bags were distributed to the 200 HHs for segregation of waste.

f) Integrated Waste Management Rules: The proposed integrated waste management rules were discussed in details. The participants gave inputs and suggestions on the draft policy.

g) Discussion on adoption of policy guidelines and integrated rules in African countries: DDG, CSE highlighted the importance of this policy paper. He further added how decentralised systems are the need of the hour and finally, feedbacks were taken from the participants.

Major outcome:

 After the two day deliberation and review of the document the countries are keen to adopt the integrated policy on waste management - some as their country specific guidelines, some as their Act/Rules while some at the local authority level. 

 As the next step, the final document with added comments shall be shared with the countries who shall then take it up to their Ministries/Authority for further action.

 Decentralised Pilot in Zanzibar: This is the first decentralised system and the first composting unit in Zanzibar. Under the pilot, 200 households in Shaurimoyo shall compulsorily segregate waste into wet, dry and household hazardous waste - treat wet waste at source and the dry recyclables shall be channelised for recycling. The society members in Shaurimoyo were trained by the CSE team (in July, 2017 and during this visit) on how to do household level propagation, how to push households for segregation and the method for composting. The team shall closely monitor the progress for six months time.