Sierra Leone

UNDP supports Waste Management

10-07-2006

Following several field missions consisting of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and UNDP, assessing Environmental Health and Waste Management situations in five towns and Freetown city in 2005, a project concept on ‘Sustainable Waste Management’ has been designed by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, in cooperation with the UNDP Governance Unit. The Sustainable Waste Management programme aims at reducing malaria and other diseases by collecting and disposing waste appropriately.

An implementation plan with key milestones has been developed by a team led by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Town Councils, UN Transition Support Team and the UNDP. At the same time, the World Bank, as a key partner, agreed to fund the provision and preparation of landfill sites. To formally launch the project in the different towns 2-day Validation Workshops, called Write-Shops, have been organised in each of the six locations; Koidu, Bonthe, Bo, Kenema, Makeni and Freetown. Detailed implementation plans were constructed at these Write-Shops, and the local community was at the forefront of their formation; from paramount chiefs to religious leaders, to representatives from schools and local police.

At the Write-Shop in Bo town on 10 July 2006, the UNDP Decentralisation Health Specialist, Dr. Alredo-Jabenitez Moosa emphasised that waste management is expensive, which is why the public will have to pay a small fee to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, which will be used to pay the garbage collectors. ‘The money will also serve as a means of managing the waste management project from which the country as a whole will benefit, as health is wealth’, said Dr. Moosa.