Monrovia – Cities Alliance, a United Nations agency, has disclosed plans to intervene in the wastes management sector of Liberia by giving the cities of Monrovia and Paynesville a facelift.
The group, which is a global partnership for alleviating urban poverty hosted by the United Nations Office for Project Services UNOPS, ended a one-day meeting to validate preliminary results of an assessment study on advancing the abilities of Community Based Enterprises (CBEs).
The study is one of the first steps toward developing a model on how to expand, modernize and make efficient, services of solid wastes management provided by community-based Enterprises within the cities of Monrovia and Paynesville respectively.
Cities Alliance Liberia Programne Manager Francisco J. Lopez said Cities Alliance Liberia is currently implementing an EU-funded project, Delivering Climate-Resilient Solid Waste Management Services in Greater Monrovia through Community-Based Enterprise.
He told FrontPageAfrica that the project, worth US$5 million, is expected to last for four years.
“The objective of this EU-funded four-year project is to ensure that Greater Monrovia is serviced by a citywide integrated solid wastes management system that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and enhances the city’s resilience against climate change and disease,” he noted.
He explained that the project focuses on reducing urban poverty, improving the quality of life, while supporting Liberia’s National Determine Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by improving the Primary Waste Collection System as well as providing viable alternatives such as wastes recycling, composting and Waste-to-Energy alternatives towards mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
He noted that his organization, the Cities Alliance Liberia, is working directly with Community Based Enterprises (CBE’s) to ensure that Solid Wastes Management in Liberia is viewed as a value chain from the household to the landfill site.
“This project builds upon the experiences of the Improved Primary Wastes Collection in Poor Communities project which established and trained CBEs and Community Management Teams (CMTs),” he said.
The program Manager of Climate Change and Rural Development of the European Union in Liberia, Vera Kellen, said for the last four years, EU’s priorities in Liberia have been in the energy, infrastructure, and agriculture sector including fisheries among others.
Ms Kellen, however, disclosed that the EU has been supporting Liberia in wastes management since 2009, saying the EU has been continuing this support of wastes due to what she called a major challenge for Liberia.
“We will continue to support this project by helping the government to make the city clean and help support the management of wastes through funding projects of such,’ she noted.
For his part, the Vice President of the National Association of Community Base Primary Waste Enterprises (NACOBE), Gabriel Nyarko said, “The results from the study were true representation of the challenges in the sector. It will assist the waste sector to expand and become viable CBEs.”
Eighteen females and 41 males representing CBEs including representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, Monrovia City Corporation, Paynesville City Corporation and the National NACOBE participated in the validation meeting.
Cities Alliance Liberia Country Program holds meeting to validate preliminary results on a study for Provision of an Action Plan for horizontal and vertical expansion of the Community Based Enterprise (CBE) system for Primary Waste Collection in Monrovia, Paynesville, and surrounding townships under the EU funded project, Delivering Climate-Resilient Solid Waste Management Services in Greater Monrovia, Liberia through Community-Based Enterprise.”