Meeting to finalise byelaws on solid waste management in Mbabane, Swaziland (eSwatini)

August 15, 2018

Mbabane (eSwatini):Mbabane Town Council, the capital city of Swaziland (now eSwatini) has a mandate to develop waste minimisation plans to encourage segregation and recycling. Concerning this, a byelaw consultation meeting was held on 13th August, 2018 for giving inputs and to finalise the Municipal Council of Mbabane Waste Byelaw focussing on minimisation, segregation, recycling and reuse. The template of byelaw was drafted by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, India.

The meeting was attended by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gideon Mhlongo, Town Council of Mbabane; Benedict Gamedze, Strategic Planning and Budgeting Manager and Ellen Matsenjwa,Programme Manager, Municipal Council of Mbabane; Legal Councels, Swaziland Environement Authority and Swati Singh Sambyal, Programme Manager, CSE.

The CEO, Mbabane Town, highlighted the importance of the municipal byelaws in strengthening waste management. Mbabane, being the capital, needs to be the first to take the lead in framing its byelaws on solid waste management. He thanked CSE for taking the lead in framing the byelaws and extending its support. Swati Singh Sambyal shared CSE’s work on waste management in the Global South and discussed the need for byelaws.

This was followed by a daylong meeting to discuss the draft byelaws in working groups. The byelaws shall be finalised after this consultation meeting and will be submitted to the cabinet for approval in a months’ time.

Further updates:

Following this, a workshop was organised on 15th August, 2018 to train the staff of Mbabane Town Council to do household mapping and sensitisation on the waste management project that would involve 2400 households from the capital city giving segregated waste at source, which would be further channelised for composting, upcycling and reuse. The workshop was attended by staff of Mbabane Town Council, SEA and CSE.

The Town Council has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with CSE for providing core support in framing byelaws and help the town council establish a waste management framework on ground focussing on segregation, recycling and reuse.