Validation workshop |04 July 2019

Mrs Laure addressing the gathering

Study on the coastal waste management infrastructure in a changing climate

A validation workshop on the ‘Study on the coastal waste management infrastructure in a changing climate’ by Nippon Koei and the World Bank Group was held yesterday at the STC conference room.

Organised by the Ministry for Environment, Energy and Climate Change (MEECC), the workshop was conducted by Jan Grotmann-Hoefling, a senior consultant from the World Bank and a team from the Nippon Koei.

Minister Wallace Cosgrow and the principal secretary for environment Alain de Commarmond also attended the workshop together with various stakeholders.

The objective of the project is to support the government of Seychelles on improving technical knowledge of coastal waste management infrastructure in relation to future disaster risk caused by climate change.

It works in coordination with other projects such as solid waste master plan by EU Team and the vulnerable assessment by World Bank Climate Change team.

The risk and rapid assessment was carried out by the World Bank Team earlier this year in order to identify the current and future climate change induced hazards to the landfills taking into consideration the existing waste infrastructure in relation to climate and disaster risks.

The objectives were to grasp and evaluate the current situation (including existing pollution) of the existing waste infrastructure – Providence landfill – and to identify the current and future climate change induced hazards to existing coastal waste management systems at Providence landfills 1 and 2.

The main findings of the assessment were: potential environmental risk due to failures in landfill facilities and operation must be eliminated through the measures such as regular soil cover, compaction of waste and formation of slope, commissioning of leachate treatment plant, installation of gas ventilation facility, reinforcing reporting by the contractor and control and penalty on the contractor performance.

The director general for waste, enforcement and permit, Nanette Laure, noted that “waste management remains one of the challenges for Seychelles as a whole. As policy makers the task is one which necessitates technical expertise the know-how, required resources, as well as political support. Over the years a number of documents such as the waste policy, the waste master plan, the sustainable development strategy and several other reports have been produced with the main objective of providing guidance to successful waste management in the country”.

She further remarked that “annual statistics continue to show that the amount of waste produced annually and disposed of at the landfill is on the increase. In 2018, the National Waste Policy was approved by the cabinet of ministers, the main purpose of the policy is to provide a framework to facilitate the involvement of the government, private sector and the general public in the waste management sector. It further encourages the efficient use of resources so as to make better informed decisions on waste management”.

The World Bank and other International organisations came on board to provide technical support in one the priority sectors in the country.