HORIZON INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS SITE

The Waste Management Project is part of a £20 million UK-funded programme to improve the sustainable use of natural resources in Sudan, to be carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) over the next three years.

Gareth Thomas, Minister of State at the UK Department of International Development (DFID) visited Juba on October 16, 2009 to launch a UNEP project to establish long-term waste management capacity in Southern Sudan.  

In order to kick-start the project, UNEP will organize a clean-up campaign in Juba, in collaboration with Government of Southern Sudan, sister UN Agencies and local organizations.

Disposed waste on the outskirts of Juba, Southern Sudan Photo: United Nations

Taking place on 23 November, Juba Clean-Up will mobilize 16,000 volunteers to tackle the growing health hazard caused by public dumping of waste in the metropolitan area.

With the rapid growth of the city and the absence of a sustainable waste management system, the people of Juba have endured repeated fatal outbreaks of cholera, waterborne diseases and malaria.

The clean-up, which will be replicated in the nine states of Southern Sudan, will be coupled with a sustained awareness-raising campaign to encourage the citizens of Juba to adopt an environmentally friendly attitude towards the disposal of waste in the city.

The initiative forms part of country-wide environmental programme implemented by UNEP to assist the people of Sudan to achieve sustainable peace, recovery and development by improving the management of natural resources.

In addition to the waste management project, the recently established UNEP office in Juba will provide technical support to the Government to manage its forests and other valuable natural resources in a sustainable manner, and work to build the capacity of Government ministries to address environmental issues affecting Southern Sudan and implement the 24 recommendations of UNEP's Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment, published in June 2007.

Speaking from UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Achim Steiner, Executive Director and UN Under-Secretary-General, said: "UNEP thanks the United Kingdom and DFID Sudan for supporting the environmental agenda there. The Juba clean-up not only marks the beginning of an important project that will have concrete and positive impacts on the population of Southern Sudan - it also takes forward UNEP's collaboration with Sudan to improve environmental management as a critical pre-requisite of sustainable development."

Background

After the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was requested to conduct a Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment of Sudan. The assessment was conducted in 2006 and a comprehensive report was launched in July 2007.

The Sudan Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment report includes assessments of water, agriculture, forests, desertification and natural disasters, wildlife, the marine environment, industrial pollution, the urban environment, environmental governance and the role of environmental pressures in Sudan's conflicts. The report makes 85 recommendations and outlines a detailed government action plan with a total estimated national cost of US$120 million over three to five years. The assessment and recommendations form the basis of UNEP's continuing engagement in Sudan.

With funding from DFID and USAID, UNEP established an office in Khartoum in November 2007 to follow through the recommendations and support delivery of the environmental elements of Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreements and other national priorities.

During the period 2007-2009, three projects were implemented in Darfur: the Darfur Timber and Energy, the Integrated Water Resources Management, and the Aid and Environment Projects.

The new phase of the programme, which is supported by a £20 million grant from DFID over three years, marks the expansion of the programme and the establishment of project offices in Juba and in El Fasher, in Darfur.

This report is from UNEP, October 16, 2009