In recent years, Ethiopia has become a regional leader in solid waste management. Just before three years, the country transformed the Koshe dump site, the only landfill in Addis Ababa, into a new waste-to-energy plant, the first such project on the continent. The plant incinerates up to 1,400 tons of waste every day-roughly 80 percent of the city’s rubbish-supplying the capital with 25 percent of its household electricity needs, according to the document from the UN.
However, despite these important strides, challenges remain in Ethiopia. Although the country has ratified the Basel, Stockholm and Rotterdam conventions, legislation and policies for environmentally sound management of hazardous chemicals and wastes are still at a very early stage and not effective in preventing illegal dumping of waste as well as contamination of water, soil and air resources.
To help Ethiopia meet these challenges, the Chemicals and Waste Management Programme is supporting the country with a three-year project to enhance institutional capacity for sound management of hazardous wastes and persistent organic pollutants.
In the initial stages, a project management unit will be formed, made up of multiple stakeholders and representatives from key participating ministries and public and private organizations. This unit will be responsible for reviewing and assessing Ethiopia’s current legislative framework, which, despite numerous advances in recent years, does not specifically target the importation, production, transport, use and disposal of hazardous waste.
Once legal gaps are identified, the project will seek to update existing policies, strategies and regulatory frameworks as well as enforcement mechanisms. Ethiopia will also work towards creating more synergies between government institutions, as well as engaging in dialogue on mainstreaming chemical management into national plans and institutions.
Many people in Ethiopia are not aware of the criminal implications of environmental violations and the need to report such crimes to the police, while few environmental cases have gone through the full length of the criminal justice system. To resolve this pressing issue, Ethiopia will be conducting a series of capacity-building activities, including developing training modules, creating awareness-raising programmes, training trainers and providing equipment.
Ethiopia will also work to establish a national coordination mechanism for chemicals and waste management by engaging government ministries, the private sector, civil society groups and other relevant stakeholders in the implementation of sound management policies, including the establishment of a national steering committee. Authorities will also make budgetary provisions in national, regional and institutional planning to ensure funding for these activities is sustainable even after the project’s completion.
These combined actions will also help Ethiopia improve and update its reporting system under the Basel and Stockholm conventions. This will include improvements in data generation and management, as well as the development of a sustainable hazardous waste inventory as the basis for further action plans to mitigate their impact.
Given the particular vulnerability of women and children to chemical exposure, this project will work to promote the participation of women in policy development and decision-making processes. This will help ensure that existing policies and programmes, as well as future institutional changes, are assessed with particular attention to gender.
The depth and breadth of these transformative actions, from updating legislation to improving data collection, will ensure that this project has a lasting impact. In so doing, the recent leaps Ethiopia has made in chemicals and waste management will be not only maintained but ultimately become the basis for a sustainable environmental policy for years to come.
Putting a properly designed integrated solid waste management system is pivotal to minimize the adverse impacts of open burning of wastes, especially in developing countries, an expert said.
Ethiopia has been taking various measures to enhance the solid waste management system and properly exploit the economic and social benefits.
For instance, the nation has opened Africa’s first waste-to-energy facility in the capital Addis Ababa to generate electricity. The facility which has now been operational can use 1,400 tons of waste daily which figure comes up to about 80 percent of refuse generated by Addis Ababa.
It is believed that such measure has a positive impact to minimize the adverse effects of open burning of wastes on the environment and human health.
Chemical Engineer Desta Mebratu said the open burning of wastes in Africa and the toxicity and hazardous nature of the pollution coming out of it has increased. It also contributes to short-lived climate pollutant which has a significant impact on climate change.
“If you see the waste composition from cities like Addis Ababa; 75 of it is biodegradable or earth material, 10-15 percent is recyclable material, and the remaining needs to be disposed of properly,” he elaborated.
Furthermore, Desta emphasized that an integrated solid waste management system will help to know the volume of waste being generated, to characterize the type of waste and implement proper waste segregation.
This, according to him, will have economic, social and environmental benefits by minimizing the spontaneous and deliberate open burning of wastes and its adverse impact. Countries should call time on the common practice of open burning waste to mitigate climate impact, environmental pollution and to improve the health of billions of people who live without a waste collection service or near dumpsites.
The open burning of waste is particularly problematic in sub-Saharan Africa which in 2015 was home to 19 of the world’s 50 biggest dumpsites, according to United Nations Environment Program.
Rapid urbanization and unsustainable patterns of consumption and production mean the situation is getting worse.
BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD DECEMBER 15/2021
