The Zabbaleen Environment and Development Program: Cairo
The Concept of Integrated Sustainable Waste Management refers to a waste management system that best suits the society, economy and environment in a given location, a city in most cases. The concept of ISWM not only takes technical or financial-economic sustainability into account as in conventionally done, but it also includes sociocultural, environmental, institutional and political aspects that influence overall sustainability of waste management. ISWM also stands for a strategic and long-term approach. Waste management is seen in the ISWM approach as an equity and public health issue, which means that everybody has a right to a regular waste collection and proper sanitation.
In the context of ISWM 'sustainable' can be described as:
- appropriate to the local conditions from a technical, environmental, social,
- economic, financial, institutional, and political perspective, and;
- capable to maintain itself over time without exhausting the resources it needs
'Integrated' refers to the integration of:
- different aspects of sustainability (technical, environmental/public health financial, etc.)
- different collection and treatment options at different habitat scales, i.e. household, neighbourhood and city level (operational interaction)
- different stakeholders, governmental or non-governmental, formal or informal, profit- or non-profit oriented (co-operation, linkages, alliances, economic and social interaction)
- the waste management system and other urban systems (such as drainage, energy, urban agriculture, etc.)
In Cairo, a partnership formed by local, national, and international organisations has successfully transformed a community through the Zabbaleen Environment and Development program. Since the program began in 1981, quality of life has improved in a formerly neglected community; thousands of jobs have been created as an improved municipal waste collection and recycling system has been implemented. At the intersection of poverty and the environment, the Zabbaleen Environment and Development program fashioned productive solutions.
Greater Cairo generates thousands of tons of solid waste per day. The municipal sanitation force shares management of the waste with a traditional, private-sector collection system run by two poor social groups, the Wahis and the Zabbaleen. With more than a century in Cairo's garbage trade, the Wahis control the collection routes and contracts with homeowners. The Zabbaleen pick up waste and transport it to their settlement on the city's fringe, where it is sorted and recycled, or used for animal fodder.
A community with little or no organization or power, the Zabbaleen enjoyed few basic services when the program began almost 20 years ago, and suffered from environmental devastation, little economic opportunity, lack of education, and a host of other problems endemic to urban slums. The Zabbaleen Environment and Development Program has made significant improvement in this community.
The ZEDP had two primary objectives: to improve the living conditions and build the capacity of the Zabbaleen; and to create a more efficient solid waste management system for Cairo. Today the most visible transformation is the community's physical appearance, resulting from substantial government improvements in community infrastructure. There are now approximately 1,500 houses in the settlement, many of which are multi-story, concrete-block structures, more than double the some 700 one-story shacks in the area in 1981. The number of inhabitants has almost tripled over 12 years, rising from 5,881 in 1981 to 16,600 in 1993.
New infrastructure, clean-up projects and the organization of a composting plant are all ZEDP projects which have helped to improve the overall cleanliness of the settlement. In turn, public health has improved, with infant and child mortality decreasing from 240 per thousand in 1979 to 117 per thousand in 1991.
Health and environmental benefits initiated in the ZEDP have had wider effects in greater Cairo. The Route Extension Project, funded by the NGO, Oxfam, brought 8,000 more homes into the Zabbaleen collection system, helping to create a much cleaner city overall. Recycling programs born of ZEDP have significantly reduced the environmental burden of waste disposal. The ZEDP composting plant mentioned above now produces fertilizer that is free of chemicals and harmful contaminants.
The economic benefits are also numerous. Household income has increased twenty times over the past ten years. Recycling activities and projects created a diversified urban economy and additional income. Women and children have been relieved of the long and arduous process of sorting, and are free to engage in various other income-generating, educational and recreational activities.
The driving vision behind the PEDP, as with the ZEDP in Cairo, is to create a sustainable community for the waste pickers, while simultaneously integrating them into a more effective waste management process for the city.
Further information
Cairo Insight - also good info on Traffic Issues here:
http://www.learnquebec.ca/en/content/curriculum/social_sciences/sec_geography/resources/metropolises/cairo.html
Zabbaleen
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A23780270
http://www.geographical.co.uk/Magazine/Zabbaleen_-_May08.html
http://sustainablecities.dk/en/city-projects/cases/cairo-finding-its-own-way-in-waste-collection
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/standard/display/slideshow.php?ftrv_id=64259&slide=1
Interesting articles here on tradition v modern practise in waste management in Cairo
http://www.eldis.org/id21ext/U6wf1g1.html
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/969/sc1.htm
