First decentralised pilot to come in Shaurimoyo area in Zanzibar

A meeting was jointly organised by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Zanzibar Environmental Management Authority (ZEMA) to discuss the adoption of first pilot on decentralised waste management in Zanzibar on 6th July 2017 in Mazizini, Zanzibar. The meeting was attended by the officials of ZEMA, Department of Environment (DoE), urban municipality, officials from the District Commissionerate, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Urban and Rural Planning, Zanzibar Urban Services Project (ZUSP), waste collector associations, NGOs, tourism sector and hotels. Altogether, 25 stakeholders attended the programme.

The task force team comprising of CSE, ZEMA, DoE and the Urban Municipality had earlier conducted a detailed scoping to finalise the area for the decentralised pilot from 3-5 July, 2017. CSE team also met the District Commissioner, Ms. Maria Thomas and the Mayor, Mr Khatib Abdulrahman Khatib to get their consent on the proposed pilot.

Sessions

The following sessions were taken during the meeting.

a) Timeline – Association between CSE and ZEMA: Sonia Henam from CSE briefed the participants about the association between CSE and ZEMA. She discussed the timelines of the proposed project and highlighted the major focus areas on which CSE shall be working with ZEMA.

b) Opening remarks and introductory session: Farhat Mbarouk, Head EIA unit, ZEMA briefly addressed the importance of association between CSE and ZEMA and also highlighted that this is the first bilateral co-operation in Zanzibar. Further, Swati Singh Sambyal, Programme Manager, CSE described how decentralised systems are the need of the hour and why Zanzibar needs to adopt this model.

c) Adoption of decentralised waste management systems in Zanzibar: In this session, Ms Sambyal presented the proposed decentralised pilot plan for 200 households to the participants and discussed the location of the site, about the pilot decentralised system, its process, economics, role and responsibility of the concerned authorities and different case studies from India.

d) Deadlines and commitments: In the last session, a session on deadlines and commitments was chaired and moderated by Sheha Mjaja, DG, ZEMA. Mr. Mjaja informed the stakeholders that Shaurimoyo area has been selected for the decentralised pilot owing to its location (being only 2 kms away from Stone Town) and interest of the residents living there. He also highlighted the presence of an active society of workers, called the Shaurimoyo Waste Management Society who is keen to take up this pilot. Sambyal informed the stakeholders about the activities that shall be undertaken under the decentralised pilot and the deadlines.

There was also a discussion on the role and responsibility to execute this pilot programme. A core group comprising of CSE, ZEMA, DoE and Urban Municipality was created who shall be responsible for monitoring this programme. Mr. Mzee Khamis Juma, Head, Department of Town Planning & Construction, Urban Municipality requested the hotel and tourism sector to support this programme. He mentioned that it is high time that big hotels in the island should support and contribute towards such programmes. Dr Aboud Jumbe, Head, Policy and Planning, DoE, further added that the proposed pilot project is do-able and manageable and he supports the initiative to make Zanzibar the cleanest island in East Africa.

Major outcome:

The decentralised pilot model will be set up in Shaurimoyo area. The place is an impact area because of its location. Also, from 200 HH, the work can easily be replicated to the rest of the area in a phased manner.
As a part of this pilot, 200 households in Shaurimoyo area shall compulsorily segregate waste into wet, dry and domestic hazardous waste. The wet or the biodegradable waste shall be composted at source in pits while the dry waste shall be channelized to recyclers. The collector shall be incentivised in this model for making efforts to collect segregated garbage from households. Only, the domestic hazardous waste shall go to the disposal facility.
Market linkages for compost shall also be created, as Zanzibar is predominantly agriculture based economy.
A timeline has been set up internally for the proposed pilot project
Launch of Pilot: The teams from CSE, ZEMA-DoE and Urban Municipal Council have agreed to launch the pilot during the International Meeting to finalise the policy on Integrated Waste Management to be held on 6-7 September, 2017.