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The purpose of this project is to work in ten selected municipalities
and four city corporations of Bangladesh to promote the concept
of community based solid waste management along with decentralized
method of composting and recycling in order to generate income and
employment opportunities for the urban poor. Further, the project
also aims to promote marketing of compost involving private sector
to make it sustainable and also to encourage eco-friendly product-compost
in order to increase organic matter content in the soil. The guiding
principle in this project is to empower low-income communities to
manage their own solid waste in a sustainable manner through capacity
building and awareness raising of all stakeholders.
The defined outputs
are to:
1. Conduct a baseline
survey reports on solid waste management of selected pourashavas
and city corporations.
2. Prepare 2 (two) training manuals on `community mobilization'
and `solid waste management & recycling'.
3. Conduct TOT to Local NGOs (for municipalities) and UDC (for city
corporations) on community mobilization and recycling and composting.
4. Supervise and monitor on-the job training to local NGO/UDC staff
5. Prepare architectural, structural as well as landscape design
and cost estimate of ecological parks for the selected pourashavas
and city corporations
6. Provide hands-on training to communities and entrepreneurs on
composting
7. Establish out-lets for marketing of compost
8. Organize and conduct a number of regional training programs on
solid waste management and composting as well cross visit to successful
solid waste and composting schemes within Bangladesh
9. Organize monitoring and evaluation studies for pilot initiatives
to be undertaken in ten pourashavas and four municipalities.
10. Documentation of the projects.
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Approach
Key elements in the
approach include:
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Public-Private-Community Partnerships
It is now being recognized
that in order to serve the low-income settlements and slums with
urban services such as solid waste management, public-private-community
partnership is essential to a sustainable service delivery as partnership
projects can yield " win-win" situation for all the partners.
For instance, partnership in community based urban solid waste management
project in Dhaka, being implemented by Waste Concern with support
from UNDP and Ministry of Environment and Forest has lowered Dhaka
City Corporation's waste management cost and at the same time helped
in cleaning the local environment, along with creation of job opportunities
for the urban poor. Keeping the records of success in mind, we propose
roles of each partner in the project as follows:
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Community: The target
communities would include slum and low-income households which are
deprived of regular waste collection and removal services. They
usually live in permanent and semi-permanent structures in unhygienic
environment. The communities shall actively participate in source
segregation of waste and play a key role in monitoring house-to-house
waste collection and paying for the service. They shall also appoint
the staff to handle waste collection and composting.
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Waste Concern: It
shall mediate with poursahavas/city corporations and other public
agencies as well as with the private sector to provide land and
logistical support for the project and shall assist in marketing
the recyclables and compost. Waste Concern shall also provide technical
assistance to build the capacity of local NGOs and UDC, for establishing
small-scale composting units having capacity of 1-2 tons/day and
also monitor its operation and maintenance.
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Local NGO and UDC:
The Local NGOs and UDC shall train communities in respective pourashavas
and city corporations in management and operation and maintenance
(O&M) of the services under the supervision of Waste Concern
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Pourashava/City Corporation:
From the public sector, pourashavas and city corporations shall
grant permission to the communities to use the agencies' land for
composting plants and ecological park, and also provide water and
electricity to the project. The composting plant shall belong to
respective local government bodies providing the land, while local
communities would operate it.
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Private Sector: From
the private sector, Alpha Agro and its sister concern Map Agro shall
be involved to purchase all the compost produced by the community
based composting plants to be located in different cities and towns
and to market the product through its countrywide rural distribution
network. Map Agro has since signed a formal agreement with Waste
Concern to market the compost produced from different community
based composting plants in Dhaka and invested $46,300 in a compost
enrichment plant. Many composting plants find it difficult to market
their product beyond a 25-km radius. Map Agro's distribution network
made it possible to market the compost about 300-400 km outside
the plant. Raw compost is packed in 40-kg bags and is priced at
$46.30 per ton for the first year, which may be increased from the
second year onward if the parties concern so agree.
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UNICEF: UNICEF the
sponsoring organization, would provide start-up funds to establish
community-based composting units and ecological parks that are integrated
with house-to-house waste collection through the local government
bodies.
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Sustainablity
For long-term sustainability
of the project and to make it self-sustainable, compost and recyclables
shall be marketed involving specialized private companies. Moreover,
communities shall be motivated to pay for house to house waste collection
services.
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Gender Concern and Employment Opportunity
Generally, women in
Bangladesh have limited access to social and economic opportunities.
They are also excluded from harnessing benefits of social and environmental
projects. Against this background, in this project women shall be
involved in composting activity. Based on the experience of Waste
Concern, in a three-ton per day capacity composting plant, 20 workers
are required (9 for collection of waste and 11 for composting).
Considering the high level unemployment in Bangladesh, this project
has good prospects of employment generation for the urban poor,
especially, women from the informal sector as well as helping in
poverty alleviation.
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Community Mobilization and Participation
The core strategy
of our approach relies on community mobilization and capacity building
of the communities to manage their waste at local level and ensure
sustainability of the project. Community mobilization is a long
term and time-consuming process. In order to achieve, this goal,
long-term awareness raising and capacity building programs are planned
during the project period involving local NGOs, UDCs and local government
staff.
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Best Practice
The proposed project
team shall use all its expertise and contacts to ensure that the
composting technology and capacity building programs, are based
on models of good practice and evidence of effectiveness gleaned
from recognized international literature.
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Proposed Technology for Composting
Waste Concern is proposing
three types of technologies for composting of organic waste in the
project areas. However, the selection of technology shall depend
upon local site condition. The proposed technologies are:
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Windrow Method with Passive Aeration (Under Shed)
This method is similar
to windrow method of composting. However, the only major difference
is that the piles are aerated passively through bamboo aerators.
Compostable organic waste is heaped into piles (under a covered
shed of steel angle/bamboo posts and CI sheet roofing on top), which
allows the beneficial micro-organisms to decompose the organic waste
efficiently. In addition, the shed protects the compost worker from
rain and heat of the sun. Pile temperature of 55-65 degree Celsius
is optimum for aerobic composting. To enable the microorganisms
to obtain sufficient oxygen, the pile is aerated using bamboo aerators.
In tropical countries, it is likely for the piles to reach excessively
high temperature. Turning along with the use of bamboo aerators
is the method used to maintain the required pile temperature. Turning
associated with watering maintains the conditions for rapid decomposition
and also moves the non-decomposable materials from exterior of the
pile into the interior, thus providing new food source for the bacteria.
Temperature of the pile determines when to turn. The temperature
is monitored and records are kept of the temperature trends. It
takes about 55 days (40 days for composting and 15 days for maturing)
to produce compost using this method. The process of composting
emits very little odor. Waste Concern is using this method for composting
kitchen waste in Mirpur area of Dhaka City for last eight years.
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Box Method of Composting (Under Cover)
This method is very
similar to windrow composting except that frequent turning is not
required for aeration. Air is supplied to the organic material through
perforated box and perforated vertical pipes embedded in the pile.
The vertical pipe provides chimney effect created by the warm gases
rising out of the windrow causes air to flow through the pipes.
Sorted organic waste is placed in the perforated box, which decomposes
aerobically in 40 days and takes another 15 days for maturing. Figure
3, 4, 5 & 6 shows the composting process. Waste Concern has
introduced this method of composting in Baily Road, Green Road and
Dholpur composting plant since 1999.
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Barrel Method of Composting (For Slums)
In this method of
composting, a specially designed 200 litre perforated green barrel
with perforation on the sides and bottom with a lid is provided
to slum dwellers. One green barrel is provided to a group of six
households and placed on a raised base with concrete ring. The slum
dwellers are imparted with training and motivated to dispose their
kitchen waste into the green barrel. Waste decomposed aerobically
into compost in three months time period. Generally, in low-income
settlements major portion of the waste generated is biodegradable.
Slum dwellers are motivated to dispose their inorganic waste in
the yellow barrel, which is subsequently carried to nearby municipal
dustbins, for final disposal. It was found that from a one 200-litre
barrel, compost worth between Tk. 1000-Tk.1200 could be produced
each year. The households sharing the barrel can also share the
income from sale proceeds of the compost. This model is successful
in achieving a behavioural change by minimizing littering of waste
in the slum. The slum dwellers are quite enthusiastic about the
project as they are see the benefits of clean environment, health
benefit and earning extra income from their waste, which was previously
creating pollution and nuisance in their slum. This model of barrel
type composting demonstrates how slum people can improve their environment,
health along with economic benefits. Waste Concern has introduced
this method of composting in several slum and squatter settlements
in Dhaka, Khulna and Sylhet.
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