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Lesotho is a mountainous, landlocked country entirely
surrounded by South Africa. It’s capital, Maseru, is the largest
city in the country. Before 2006 there was no sanitary landfill for
the city and recycling rates were low (less than 10%). Waste was
dumped into an old quarry where the waste was subsequently
burnt, causing air pollution and health risks. Toxic substances
also leached into the city’s water reservoir.
In order to introduce a more strategic and integrated approach
to managing growing amounts of waste, the UNEP International
Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) provided technical
assistance to the city to develop an Integrated Solid Waste
Management Plan (ISWMP). Following a baseline survey
conducted in 2006, the ISWMP was completed in early 2008, led
by the Ministry of Local Government with advisory and technical
assistance from UNEP IETC in partnership with the University of
Cape Town.
The Plan consists of 5 main pillars, which are further sub-divided
into 20 different actions. These five pillars of the plan, and actions
include:
• Capacity to prevent wasteful resource use at source. Actions
include promoting sustainable consumption, cleaner
production, source separation, and at-source value addition.
• Strong, diversified and appropriate collection systems: Actions
include developing different collection systems for different
areas, including decentralized waste depots, the integration of
informal waste pickers, route planning,
• A healthy recycling industry: Actions include providing
business development support and support to industry
associations to promote recycling, and revising the regulatory
framework to support local recycling markets
• Environmental safe disposal site: Actions Include the
development of an Environmental Impact Assessment for the
proposed sanitary landfill site, integration of the site with other
on-going activities, and providing capacity to convert paper
waste into paper bricks for fuel.
• Foundation (Education and Capacity Building): Actions include
awareness raising in schools, creating waste minimisation
clubs, establishing a waste information system, and creating
awareness through mass media.
Following this effort, UNDP initiated the ‘Innovative
Partnerships for Solid Waste Management (IPSWM)’ Project
in Lesotho between 2009 and 2012. The objective of the
IPSWM Project was to support the development of financially
sustainable and innovative public private partnerships (PPPs)
for basic delivery of sustainable solid waste management
services. This included waste collection, street sweeping,
waste picking and recycling within the urban and peri-urban
areas of Maseru.
CASE STUDY
Developing an Integrated SolidWaste Management Plan for
Maseru City, Lesotho
Pamphlet promoting recycling and behavioural change, designed for primary school children and parents as a call for action. Created by the
University of Cape Town and the UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) as part of the education and awareness raising
activities, within the project ‘Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan for Maseru City’.