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Implementing Agenda 21 The Local Partners Approach to Urban Waste Management in Morocco By Magdi Ibraham and Samuel Watchueng
Debates about the commitments of governments at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio underlined the urgency of issues linked to hygiene and cleanliness, drinking water availability in the South, and concrete actions in favor of vulnerable sectors. However, despite good intentions, governments and international donors continue to invest in expensive water-cleaning systems. These limit the availability of resources and basic services to the most marginalized populations, especially in poor urban areas. Morocco's population is approximately 27 million people; about 52% live in urban areas. Although the percentage of households in shantytowns dropped from 12.8% in 1982 to 6.8% in 1992, 900,000 to one million urban dwellers in the country live in a precarious situation, and the number of clandestine dwellers is rising. This means many Moroccans are ecologically, socially and economically fragile. The NGO ENDA-Maghreb (Environnement et Developpement au Maghreb), present in Morocco since 1989, has launched a programme on Improving Living Conditions of Marginalized Inner-City Groups. The programme aims to diagnose and carry out participative research, as well as put into action durable improvements to living and especially hygienic conditions, by working in concertation with the communities concerned and in partnership with local authorities.
Community Management of Urban Waste Programme ENDA-Maghreb, in order to support local initiatives, has established a community network to manage urban waste with several associations and collectives. The network's activities include identifying, developing, setting up, seeking funds for and carrying out projects that collect, treat and recycle solid and liquid urban waste. Actions include assisting local and community associations in identifying problems at the neighbourhood level, and providing support that uses local knowledge and appropriate technology in project conception and launching phases. The combination of appropriate technologies, already tested in other Southern urban contexts, and the norms required by relevant technical departments, especially municipal ones, make up the innovative aspect of the network's approach. In this way, the programme addresses the issue of services as well as employment, since it is widely acknowledged that passive subsidies from public institutions do not lead to a real process of change at the local level.
Tools of the Network Partner associations benefit from the technological and methodological support of ENDA-Maghreb in its Technological and Solidarity Support programme. The programme consists of action-oriented research conducted by an ENDA technical team and the network, which permits young researchers from the North and South to work together from the identification and conception phases right up to implementation of the project. ENDA-Maghreb waste management programme covers different neighbourhoods in the following Moroccan urban areas: Figuig, Sale (accent), Rabat, Tiflet, Khemisset, Beni Mellal and Taza. All the projects have several actors involved from project conception; they include beneficiary populations, local associations and cooperatives , agricultural associations, and other popular economic actors, such as waste recuperation networks. The communication section of ENDA-Maghreb develops environmental education tools which support public awareness in neighbourhoods and encourage popular participation in the projects. An evaluation, formation and action tool, which uses training programmes and indicators, allows surveying and evaluation of projects during the implementation phase. The tool allows, through South-South exchange programmes, the possibility of exchange visits of technicians and project organizers of similar initiatives already launched in the Maghreb and the Middle East, such as in Egypt and Tunisia. It also provides knowledge for associated actors and municipal technicians in the Maghreb about successful experiences in Sub-Saharan countries such as Senegal, Benin and Mali. This helps reinforce a spirit of decentralized cooperation and aids in promoting exchanges of South-South experiences with the necessary adaptions for each local context. In order to promote South-South technological exchanges and national and sub-regional actions on environmental themes, ENDA-Maghreb is the focal point of PRECEUP (Programme d'Economie Environmentale, Urbaine et Populaire) for Maghreb and the Middle East. Thus, the network is part of sub-regional and international actions.
Role of Local Groups For all planned activities, the municipality or local authority responsible for living conditions has demonstrated an interest in the approach proposed by the network. The authorities are particularly interested in improving and lowering the cost of collecting and unloading household wastes. In each project, the municipality or local authority supply land, workers and technicians. It is important to note that with decentralization programmes, reinforced local powers are faced with more and more complex problems. In certain cases, municipalities have contacted the network in order to launch projects that adopt appropriate technologies at the local level.
Objectives The main objective of each project is to improve the environment of neighbourhoods and health and living standards of their residents. Specific objectives are to:
Achievements The projects aim to achieve the following:
Institutional Mechanisms Agreements of understanding have been signed between local associations and cooperatives, and a signed convention of the partners is expected between the association, the relevant municipality and ENDA-Maghreb for the implementation phase of the projects. These agreements of understanding specify the role of each partner during implementation of the projects. Personnel, material and technical needs have been calculated for each project, which has an average span of one to two years. Personnel needs include the following: conception, coordination, animation and follow up, evaluation, supervision of local work, sorting, composting and security. The budget for each facet is shared between the local association, the beneficiary population and the municipality. ENDA-Maghreb aims to seek funding for all costs not covered by its donor partners.
Challenges There are both institutional and financial challenges to the projects. Obstacles have been encountered when seeking financial partners for the projects, which slows down and complicates implementation. There are also institutional challenges such as creating a real partnership with local authorities. Institutional and administrative blockages are also common, despite the fact that agreements of understanding have been reached with local authorities.
Local Needs and Training Local associations, which often have fragile structures and little experience in larger projects, also lack the sufficient technical capacity to manage wastes and need extra training and follow up. Reinforcement of local capabilities is a challenging task and usually addressed by organizing training workshops in the framework of the network, they revolve around Community Management of Wastes. Training programmes in public education are also indispensable to implementing the projects.
Participative Context The participation of all concerned actors in solving problems together helps ensure the viability and sustainability of actions. Beneficiary populations, teachers, economic actors such as recuperators and transporters, local authorities and researchers all contribute to the goal and implementation of solutions to manage household wastes.
Perspectives and Recommendations The programme, keeping within in the spirit of the network, continues to identify potential operations, research new project sites, identify local partners, such as municipalities, associations and researchers. Partnerships must continually be worked upon in order to promote urban networking among municipal and associative actors that results in appropriate approach to urban waste management . Local authorities, who are increasingly searching for low-cost, appropriate solutions to urban environmental problems, are aware of the importance of working with civil society partners, especially NGO, community groups and informal waste recuperation networks. Thus the delegation of certain municipal prerogatives of waste collection and management can help diminish the burden to authorities and create employment. Capacity building programmes will help improve local systems by improving productivity and, working conditions and provide economic benefits. These programmes will also improve the relationship and communication between local economic actors and the authorities. Finally, specific programmes should be implemented that are aimed at enlarging collective services to manage wastes in neighbourhoods and shanty towns. The programmes, which account socio-urban contexts, should focus on rehabilitating and better integrating the concerned neighbourhoods into the urban area in which they are located.
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