Waste Management Outlook for Mountain Regions

CASE STUDY

Developing an Integrated SolidWaste Management Plan for Maseru City, Lesotho

Lesotho is a mountainous, landlocked country entirely surrounded by South Africa. It’s capital, Maseru, is the largest city in the country. Before 2006 there was no sanitary landfill for the city and recycling rates were low (less than 10%). Waste was dumped into an old quarry where the waste was subsequently burnt, causing air pollution and health risks. Toxic substances also leached into the city’s water reservoir. In order to introduce a more strategic and integrated approach to managing growing amounts of waste, the UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) provided technical assistance to the city to develop an Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan (ISWMP). Following a baseline survey conducted in 2006, the ISWMP was completed in early 2008, led by the Ministry of Local Government with advisory and technical assistance from UNEP IETC in partnership with the University of Cape Town. The Plan consists of 5 main pillars, which are further sub-divided into 20 different actions. These five pillars of the plan, and actions include: • Capacity to prevent wasteful resource use at source. Actions include promoting sustainable consumption, cleaner production, source separation, and at-source value addition. • Strong, diversified and appropriate collection systems: Actions

include developing different collection systems for different areas, including decentralized waste depots, the integration of informal waste pickers, route planning, • A healthy recycling industry: Actions include providing business development support and support to industry associations to promote recycling, and revising the regulatory framework to support local recycling markets • Environmental safe disposal site: Actions Include the development of an Environmental Impact Assessment for the proposed sanitary landfill site, integration of the site with other on-going activities, and providing capacity to convert paper waste into paper bricks for fuel. • Foundation (Education and Capacity Building): Actions include awareness raising in schools, creating waste minimisation clubs, establishing a waste information system, and creating awareness through mass media. Following this effort, UNDP initiated the ‘Innovative Partnerships for Solid Waste Management (IPSWM)’ Project in Lesotho between 2009 and 2012. The objective of the IPSWM Project was to support the development of financially sustainable and innovative public private partnerships (PPPs) for basic delivery of sustainable solid waste management services. This included waste collection, street sweeping, waste picking and recycling within the urban and peri-urban areas of Maseru.

Pamphlet promoting recycling and behavioural change, designed for primary school children and parents as a call for action. Created by the University of Cape Town and the UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) as part of the education and awareness raising activities, within the project ‘Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan for Maseru City’.

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