SWEEP Net

The Solid Waste Management Situation in the Mashreq and Maghreb Countries (July 2010)
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Solid Waste Situation in the Partners Countries

The SWEEP-NET Partners Countries ( Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon,Mauritania, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen) host about 214 million people and generate approximately 48 million tonnes of municipal waste per year. Egypt with a population of 8.2 million has the highest generation of waste in the region and Mauritania the lowest of 450,000 tons per year.

The projected urbanisation and economic growth in the region during the coming years is expected to result in a waste tonnage increase in 2025 to an average of 77 million tons/year. With the exception of Mauritania and Yemen, more than 50% of the population live in urban areas, and generate of 180-365 Kg/ per capita/per year with Lebanon and Jordan being the highest. Waste collection coverage varies between 30-100% reaching as high as 100% and 95% in Lebanon and in Syria respectively and is as low as in Mauritania reaching 30%.

Municipal waste generation and coverage in rural areas are expected to be much lower than in urban areas. Municipal waste per capita is in the range of 63-300 Kg/ per capita per /year, and its coverage ranges from 5% in Mauritania to 90 % in Lebanon. The waste composition with the exception of Mauritania (4.8%) consists of 50%-68% of organic content compared with 20-25% in developed countries. The proportion of organic materials in the solid waste stream remains very high

Solid Waste Management Achievements made by the Partners Countries

During the last decade, all SNPC made considerable efforts to address their solid waste management issues at the policy, legal, institutional operational and financial levels .

• At the policy level, many countries with the exception of Lebanon and Jordan have developed their own strategies and national programs for addressing the municipal solid waste management.
• At the legal level, most of the SNPC with the exception of Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt have enacted their respective solid waste management or cleanliness laws.
• At the institutional level, all SNPC have tried to establish their own solid waste management system based on their political characteristics. Ministries of Local Administration/ Development in collaboration with the Ministries of the Environment are responsible for policy planning and overseeing the solid waste management sector.
• At the operational level, there is a marked improvement in the level of cleanliness of most major cities resulting from better collection and street sweeping. However despite efforts to establish sanitary landfills, MSW is being disposed at open dumps with an average of 60 % of household waste collected with the exception of Tunisia.
• At the financial level, the central government remains the major financier of the MSW sector at the level of US$ 576 million /year with large subsidies provided to MSW disposal. Partial cost recovery has been established in Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and the West Bank and Gaza, though in the remaining countries of Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon and Yemen, cost recovery was not initiated yet.
• At the public communication level, the media and the NGOs have become more active in conveying public concerns, and in being involved in reporting on solid waste management activities

Remaining SWM issues in the Partners Countries

Despite these progresses, institutional, legal, financial, environmental and social problems still exist within all the dimensions of the solid waste management systems in the Region.

• There are still flaws in environmental and SWM legislation with legal inconsistencies and missing rules and regulations;
• Institutional barriers to SWM still exist due to lack of clear responsibilities, accountability and coordination ;
• Deficiencies in technical and operational management are noticeable at the national, local and municipal levels;
• There are still barriers impeding private sector participation due to unclear government policies and programs, absence of incentive instruments; risks of expensive contracts and absence of realistic environmental and occupational health risks.
• Waste reduction remains low and at-source separation is practical nonexistent. Households have no incentives to separate waste and the composition of recycling materials is low.
• Open dumps are still functioning and are still the primary locations for disposing of at least 50% of the household with possible mixture of medical and industrial wastes.
• Collection and disposal of municipal waste in rural areas lag behind the same services in the urban areas, though the rural poor stands to be mostly affected by health hazards created from disposal and burning of wastes.
• Socio-cultural aspects are been neglected as there is a prevalent lack of public awareness and communications with stakeholders and the level of community interaction in all SWM aspects is quasi- absent in the Region.
• Hazardous industrial and medical hazardous wastes are becoming a growing issue that have not been properly addressed as hazardous waste production, storage and disposal arise mostly in urban and suburban areas where the population is concentrated and where water and land resources are scarce.

Options for improvement

The achievements presented above towards addressing the above issues were recognized by the partner countries. However, all countries have expressed a strong interest to further their efforts in tackling solid waste management based an integrated sustainable waste management (ISWM) framework.

In general, the countries from MENA region are moving toward integration of the waste management system but have not yet embarked into an integrated waste management which is sustainable. The essential actions for moving towards sustainability are:

• Developing a communication strategy; piloting community interaction in specific cities and addressing the NIMBY response.
• Financing investment priorities for expanding SWM coverage in peri- urban and rural areas, establishing SWM facilities that are affordable and technologically proven, rehabilitating old dumps and collecting and disposing of hazardous health care waste.
• Completing and updating municipal waste management plans; developing missing policies laws and regulations; enhancing the institutional framework based on clear responsibilities and accountability; focusing on technical, managerial and administrative skills; designing a solid waste management information system ; promoting private sector development with a clear regulatory and incentive context ; and adapting a gradual financial and cost recovery framework based on full accounting techniques.