Present Status of Environmentally Sound Management of Wastes in Africa

1
Present Status of Environmentally Sound
Management of Wastes in Africa

• Patrick MWESIGYE
• Uganda Cleaner Production Centre
• John MBOGOMA
• Independent consultant
• Rene VAN BERKEL
• United Nations Industrial Development
  Organization

2
Background

• A desk top review was undertaken to appraise the
  current status of environmentally sound
  management of wastes in Africa
• Informed by
• National reviews in Egypt, Kenya and Zambia
• Inputs from ad hoc expert group meeting
• Further submissions from waste management experts
• Put in context of international commitments under
  Agenda 21, JPoI and Multilateral Environmental
  Agreements
• Undertaken for UNIDO and ECA in close cooperation
  with the Africa Roundtable on Sustainable
  Consumption and Production

3
Methodology

• Review of existing policy and strategy documents
• Analysis of waste generation data where available
• Broad coverage
• Municipal, industrial, commercial, construction
  and demolition, hazardous, medical, radio-active
• Consultation of government and other stakeholders
• Experience of the National Cleaner Production
  Centres
• Limitations
• No independent data collection or verification
• ? predominantly qualitative picture based on
  experts assessments

4
Regional Gaps/1

• Institutional and Organisational
• Policy and Planning
• No national policies for waste reduction at
  source
• Trust of laws and regulations on collection and
  disposal of waste, not on recycling and recovery
• Weak enforcement
• Stakeholders
• Limited involvement of national stakeholders,
  including private sector, community, and border
  controls
• Capacity Building, Training and Information
• Low human, institutional and financial capacity
  to develop and implement integrated waste
  management at all levels and all sectors of
  government, industry and community
• Waste management ranked low compared to other
  national development goals and overall lacking
  awareness

5
Regional Gaps/2

• Institutional and Organisational/Ctd
• Finance and cost recovery
• General reluctance to pay for waste collection
  and disposal
• High cost of appropriate equipment/technology for
  waste collection and management
• Waste Characterisists
• Information on types, sources, composition and
  volumes of various wastes is incomplete and often
  outdated

6
Regional Gaps/3

• Waste Management Practices
• Generation
• No incentives for source reduction and
  segregation
• Collection
• Efficiency and coverage of collections systems is
  low (estimated at 40 in urban areas)
• Transportation
• Low efficiency due to limited availability of
  vehicles and lacking maintenance
• High cost for local governments (up to 30 of
  local government budget)
• Recycling and Recovery
• Lacking facilities for organic waste, plastics,
  etc
• Random sorting and recovery by scavengers on
  streets and at dump sites
• Land-filling
• Most landfills do not meet basic environmental
  controls, and uncontrolled burning is common
  practice
• Increasing demand for land fill space is not met
• Cleaner Production
• Proven potential to reduce waste generation from
  businesses and other organisations

7
Overall Situation

• Waste management problems in Africa are varied
  and complex, facing infrastructure, technical,
  social/economic, organisational/management,
  regulatory and legal challenges
• Waste is typically disposed off without
  consideration for environmental and human health
  impacts, leading to its accumulation in cities,
  towns and uncontrolled dumpsites
• Co-disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste
  without segregation is common practice
• Municipal Solid Waste Management has been
  intractable problem for long time and beyond the
  capacity of most municipal and state governments
• Improper waste disposal in Africa has resulted in
  poor hygiene, lack of access to clean water and
  sanitation

8
Major Trends and Emerging Issues

• Poor waste management aggravates the problems of
  generally low sanitation levels
• Urbanisation is on the rise, and expected to
  continue, often without waste management planning
  and infrastructure
• Waste management infrastructure largely
  non-existent in rural areas
• Contributing to high health cost, poverty and
  urban migration
• Gap between waste management policy and
  legislation is widening due to ongoing capacity
  constraints or non existence of suitable waste
  management facilities
• Requires major investments and access to
  technical know how, for which means are
  far-fetched
• Waste generation to increase significantly as
  result of industrialisation, urbanisation and
  modernisation of agriculture
• Aggravating E-Waste problem due to growing use of
  ICT and rapid turn-over
• Increasing complexity of waste as result of
  changing lifestyle and consumption patterns in
  particular of growing urban middle class

9
Conclusions/1

• Waste Reduction
• Prevent and minimise waste and maximise reuse,
  recycling and use of environmentally sound
  alternative materials with participation of
  government authorities and all stakeholders
• Many recycling initiatives
• Paper, scrap metal, glass, plastics, CD
• Scavenging provides livelihood for urban poor
• Smaller initiatives with organic waste
• Compost, biogas, bio-ethanol
• Some research on biodegradable materials but no
  commercialisation
• NCPCs working with business to reduce waste
• Declining availability of landfill space
• Some policies to support development of recycling
  industry
• Some bans on specific disposable products
• Growing concerns on large volume mining waste and
  legacies

10
Conclusions/2

• Integrated Waste Management
• Develop waste management systems and extend waste
  service coverage. Amongst others develop and
  promote integrated waste management solutions to
  minimise urban and industrial waste generation
  and promote recycling and reuse
• Most countries have some waste legislation and
  several have started with integrated waste
  management
• Slow progress in improving waste management
  systems and extending waste service coverage
• Capacity, technical and financial constraints
• Many countries have legislation for hazardous
  wastes
• Limited management capacity ? continued
  co-disposal
• Almost exclusive reliance on landfills
• Standards developed but most cannot meet these ?
  environmental and health risks and future
  liability
• Some landfill gas collection (CDM)
• Public Private partnerships are emerging and
  encouraged
• Informal recovery by scavengers
• Greater efficiency dependent on organisation and
  formalisation of recycling and waste management
  sectors

11
Conclusions/3

• Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA)
• Ratification and implementation of relevant
  international instruments on hazardous waste
  including Bamako Convention, 4th Lome Convention
  and Basel Convention and its protocol on
  liability and compensation for damage resulting
  from transboundary movement and disposal of
  waste
• Most countries have ratified relevant
  international instruments and are at different
  stages with development and implementation of
  national action plans (Basel and Bamako)
• Lacking implementation due to absence of
  financial instrument
• Protocol on liability and compensation still
  outstanding
• Most countries lack comprehensive inventories of
  hazardous waste and sites potentially
  contaminated through inappropriate disposal of
  hazardous waste

12
Conclusions/4

• Illegal Trafficking
• Preventing international illegal trafficking of
  hazardous wastes and to prevent damage resulting
  from the trans-boundary movement of hazardous
  wastes in a manner consistent with obligations
  under relevant international instruments
• Now controlled by Basel and related conventions
  which have been ratified and are being
  implemented
• Need to strengthen border controls and involve
  revenue authorities
• Growing concerns about imports of used consumer
  goods that contain hazardous materials
• Cooperation
• Global and regional cooperation, including
  exchange of information and experience and
  transfer of appropriate technologies to improve
  the management of (radio-active) wastes
• Need to improve exchange of information,
  including volumes, best practices and storage
  methods (IAEA)
• Need to prepare for greater use of nuclear energy
  and its wastes
• Management of radio-active materials in mining is
  growing concern, as is the import of equipment
  containing radio-active materials

13
Conclusions/5

• Contaminated Sites
• Support the clean up of sites contaminated as a
  result of all types of nuclear activity and to
  conduct health studies in the regions around
  those sites as appropriate with a view to
  identifying where health treatment may be needed
  and should be provided
• Africa still lacks a comprehensive inventory of
  potentially contaminated sites
• Sound Management of Radio-Active Wastes
• Including sound storage, transportation,
  trans-boundary movement and disposal of
  radioactive material guided by principles of
  Agenda 21 technical assistance to African
  countries on management and safe disposal and
  identification of safety measures
• Importance is widely acknowledged, but capacity
  remains still very low

14
Recommendations/1

• Waste Reduction
• Policy, Planning, Legislation and Enforcement
• Policies and strategies need to be strengthened
  and/or developed and enforced, addressing all
  waste streams, sources and recycling, recovery
  and disposal options
• Stakeholder Participation
• Integration and coordination needs to be achieved
  among sectors and levels of government and with
  stakeholders in private sector and civil society
• Cleaner Production
• Enhance capacity and create awareness on
  importance and benefits of Cleaner Production
  across Africa
• Technologies
• Accelerate the development and dissemination of
  appropriate technologies and practices for
  environmentally sound management of various waste
  streams

15
Recommendations/2

• Integrated Waste Management
• Capacity Building and Training
• Improve formal and informal training and learning
• Strengthen capacities of responsible agencies
• Public Awareness
• Boost general awareness on impacts of waste on
  human health and environment
• Finance and Cost Recovery
• Charge for waste collection and encourage private
  sector and enable NGOs to initiate new projects
• Data and Monitoring
• Data on waste quantities and characteristics need
  to be improved to enable planning and investment
  and independently monitor and evaluate
  achievements

16
Recommendations/3

• Integrated Waste Management/ctd
• Best Practices and Technologies
• Improve collection and transportation systems for
  all waste streams
• Encourage waste segregation at source and develop
  appropriate recycling systems at appropriate
  scales with private sector and civil society
  partners
• Improve recovery in particular from organic
  wastes
• Ensure adequate treatment of medical wastes
• Change over to controlled landfill operations and
  avoid co-disposal of medical and hazardous waste

17
Recommendations/4

• Multilateral Environmental Agreements
• Speed up ratification by all countries
• Provide means of implementation, including
  financial instruments, in particular for Basel
  convention
• Finalise agreements
• Implementation of Bamako convention
• Liability and Compensation Protocol
• Complete inventories of hazardous wastes and
  contaminated sites

18
Recommendations/5

• Illegal Trafficking
• Improve trans-border controls and policing
• Strengthen controls on imports of used goods
• Radio-Active Wastes
• Improve exchange of best practice information
• Strengthen planning and management capacities
• Create capacity for environmentally sound
  management and storage
• Identify contaminated sites and develop and
  implement remediation strategies

19
Implementation Challenges and Constraints

• Creation of sufficient capacity for
  environmentally sound management, including where
  appropriate recovery and recycling, of various
  waste streams across Africa
• Progress is constrained by access to finance and
  technical know how
• Responsibility for waste management has been
  vested in municipalities which are ill-equipped.
• Creates an impediment for private sector
  investment in waste management
• Effective control over imports is needed to avoid
  entry of second hand goods and substandard
  products that contribute to rise in waste volumes
• Implementation and enforcement of waste
  regulations and international conventions is
  severely constrained by lack of good governance
  and transparency
• Inadequate or limited awareness and appreciation
  for best practices for environmentally sound
  management of wastes is a major constraint
• Paradigm shift among communities and society at
  large is needed.

20
Lessons Learned/Best Practices

• Involve private sector
• Access to managerial and technical know how and
  finance
• Focus on income generation
• Job creation in waste collection, transport,
  recycling and recovery
• Introduce refuse collection charges
• Incentivise good waste management practices
• Bolster practical and attitudinal change
• Perceptions are changing, but pace is slow and
  not yet widespread
• Prepare for new challenges
• E-waste, radio-active wastes

21
Expectations from Africa

• Support for transfer and dissemination of
  knowledge and technology and foster investment in
  best practices for environmentally sound
  management of waste
• The scale of necessary investment for proper
  waste management and sanitation is beyond the
  capacity of African countries
• Implementation of international agreements and
  assistance for building national institutional
  and human capacities for implementation and
  enforcement
• Conclusion of negotiations and ratification of
  protocol on liability and compensation for
  damages under the Basel Convention
• Support for inventorying of hazardous and
  radio-active wastes and sites contaminated by
  poor waste management
• Assistance at level of raising awareness and
  cultural change for integrated waste management

22
Thank You
Cleaner and Sustainable Production
Unit Environmental Management Branch PO Box 300,
A 1400 Vienna, Austria R.VanBerkel_at_unido.org www.
unido.org/cp