Established in 2007, the Union of Municipalities of Oussat wa Sahil Al Qaytaa is the southernmost union on the coast of the Governorate of Akkar. It is considered one of the most vulnerable in terms of access to income, housing, health, education and water and sanitation.
The Union approached the MASAR-ACCD team with the topic of solid waste, as it does not have any efficient system to sort and treat solid waste, which makes it incapable of dealing with its recurrent waste crisis. MASAR and the Union opted for a solid waste demonstration project aiming for an optimization of the solid waste management system by increasing collection capacity and efficiency, improving community awareness and contributing to a reduction of waste generated by the population.
Capacity Development activities
The first training targeted the Heads of Municipalities and waste collection crews. Then additional training activities were organised targeting local NGOs and community representatives, particularly schools and hospitals with a total of 90 people participating in the activities. The workshops tackled the different elements in the waste management cycle: generation, storage, collection, sorting, treatment and landfilling.
New Collection Scheme
A new collection scheme was determined by analysing waste generation rates per municipality, population, current collection capacity and state of the existing containers. The Geographic Information System was used in the planning process of the new collection scheme, mapping the existing containers and identifying their most efficient geographical distribution. MASAR provided steel and plastic waste containers of different sizes to increase the collection capacity.
Assisted by a local NGO and volunteers this was followed by an intensive awareness-raising campaign educating citizens on the importance of waste reduction and good practices for sorting and disposing of waste, reaching 3,200 households.
Towards Project Sustainability
Guided by the Union Geographic Information System, waste collection staff and private service providers subcontracted by the municipalities, jointly decided on the locations of containers and the collection routes. Furthermore, they were trained in organising daily solid waste collection and management operations based on up-to-date data, which now allows for a more efficient and effective system.