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Since its inception, RCSWMP reached many
achievements as stated in the project proposal so
is a very unique experience for most of the NGOs in the
region as it is the first project which is targeting and
touching deeply the main Five Principles of Solid Waste
Management (SWM) “Waste Reduction, Sorting at Source,
Safe Sorted Transportation, Reusing and Recycling” And
using the most updated Methodology of the Four Rs
“Reduce, Re-item, Reuse and
Recycle”.
The theme of the project is to open new
channels of communication and promote Public Awareness
through the communities and the decision makers and
takers and give new dimension for the NGO’s role in the
field of SWM that was owned by the governments and
private sector for a very long
time.
The current status of RCSWMP is very cheering
for the aims and outputs originally planned for the
project, RCSWMP - in Egypt (AOYE) and Morocco (Enda
Maghreb) - reached the ultimate objectives we were
seeking for, as we succeeded in building a concrete base
for the SWM methodology to be implemented through NGOs
and in full partnership of the community and the
decision makers and takers. Community involvement
and commitment were the main factors of success as well
as the production of high quality compost,
recycled and semi-recycled products that went beyond our
expectations. The mobile classroom in each country
played a unique role in transferring the message
of the project through targeted communities.
AOYE
targeted an urban district in Cairo and one of the
biggest universities to conduct two
experiences within the project as well as to
implement an economical and feasibility study to
evaluate the two experiences and get the shortest way
for sustainability.
Enda took a
different approach by targeting a city of 70,000
residents and getting all the SW transported to a very
large site donated by the Princess of
Morocco to get high quality compost as well as
sanitary landfill for the undesired garbage of the
entire city.
In Tunisia (APNEK) , the situation has
different dimensions as the project work started
Five month after Egypt and Morocco, so APNEK tried to
catch up the project with new methodology of targeting
Semi Rural district and get two site of SWM, one for
Compost production and the second for dry recycling with
an enormous activities in the field of Public Awareness
that let the stakeholders give all their support for the
sake of Project Success. But the project
work in Tunisia is still behind
schedule.
For Lebanon (LCED), the start was good
and the choosing of the target area was reasonable in
the North of Lebanon in the methodology of getting
strong community support that enabled the project
getting the great push on the ground. The LCED succeeded
in getting other support of local and international
agencies in implementing its activities. But for
political reasons and subsequent change of
regulations and approvals, the project faced many
obstacles that caused stopping of the solid waste
practices of collection and recycling. That is why,
following recommendation of the Ministry of Environment,
LCED suggested a change of activities to comply
with the policy of the country that might make big
difference for entire strategy of SWM in Lebanon and it
will give power for NGO to draw this strategy with the
government which is considered also great success.
The project overall was effective in
achieving the main objectives of the planned
logical framework matrix, but it faced many
obstacles on its way towards that, including the delay
in receiving the EU funds that took more
than eight months and also the long period between
the original design and the start date of the project
that exceeded two years.
Several factors affected the
activities of the project in the participating
countries in connection with changes in the laws
and regulations. This was clear in the case of
Lebanon, as well as the delays of the manufacturing of
demonstration machines and Mobiles Classrooms in the
case of Tunisia.
We should once more emphase the delay of
receiving the funds and how it affected the start up
activities and delay of actions that led to postponing
some tasks and how we overcame the problem by self
funding the activities.
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