| | | | Editorial Dear readers, after al long silence please find our first newsletter from 2017. This past year we have worked in various areas of sanitation and solid waste, with this newsletter we want to give you a short recap of the happenings of last year and a short forecast on our future activities.
>From mid-2016 WASTE Foundation is changing into WASTE COOPERATIVE: a smaller core team of experienced consultants fully dedicated to support its clients in improving the urban environment regarding sanitation and waste management, in relation to business development, climate change and sustainability.
Our aim is to provide the clients with creative, pragmatic and lasting solutions that will bring added value in a sustainable way. We aim for these solutions to be tailor-made and designed in close collaboration with our clients. Using the WASTE COOP construction we can work more flexible and ensure our clients with high quality work.
Happy reading.
Verele de Vreede |
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| | | WASTE COOP starts a new Humanitarian Innovation Fund project
Together with the Austrian Red Cross, University for Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, and Butyl (UK), WASTE COOP participates in the development and pilot trial of an emergency field test kit for microbial quality control and the detection of human pathogens during the treatment process of faecal sludge in urban humanitarian aid settings.
More info: contact Jan Spit: jspit@waste.nl |
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| | Circular Economy and Sanitation
Together with Africa Funded, WASTE COOP contributed to the Toilet Board Coalition’s report on how Sanitation might contribute to the circular economy. It is a thought piece presenting a number of business opportunity spaces, where it is thought that value has been left on the table and customer needs were not met. It gives some recommendations for further exploration.
The report can be downloaded on: http://www.toiletboard.org/media/17-Sanitation_in_the_Circular_Economy.pdf
More info: contact Jan Spit: jspit@waste.nl |
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| | Valentin Post attends Holy Mass in Vatican City
In a wonderful setting – the Science Academy of the Vatican – behind the Saint Peter Basilica and opposite the Sistine Chapel, we (Valentin Post of WASTE and Abhijit Banerji of Finish Society) were privileged to be among 75 discussing the big social and environmental issues of today 13-15 November, 2016. Next to church representatives, most participants were impact investors (mainly from the US and the Netherlands), social entrepreneurs and a few NGOs. Our gathering was directly linked to the Encyclical Letter - Laudato Si’ – of Pope Francis. In this he concisely and convincingly writes on care for our common home.
On the agenda was how impact investors and other stakeholders can contribute to the peace, social and ecological agenda. Or from the WASTE perspective, how we can we generate the businesses that impact investors can invest in.
Together with the International Federation of the Red Cross, WASTE and many other organisations (UNICEF, CARE, CARITAS, WAI, Borda etc.) we will be attempting to link preventive healthcare (safe sanitation, water and hygiene) with the health infrastructure of the Church.
More information: Valentin Post |
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| | Villages around the van Oers United (Senegal) will be tidy and clean Van Oers United is an internationally active producer and supplier of year-round fresh vegetables. In Senegal Van Oers United produces green beans for the European market. The Van Oers United Senegal farms can be found 80 km from the capital Dakar and employs around 4000 people of which the majority is women. Most of them live in the villages around the Van Oers Senegal farms.
Van Oers United requested WASTE to assess the waste situation of these villages and to give recommendations for improvement.
We spoke to the inhabitants of the villages and to the representatives of the councils of the villages and they are aware of the waste problem and the impact on their health. They are eager to collaborate and to find a durable solution to solve the problem. Different solutions have been proposed: collecting the waste and transporting it to an old mine hole or even more sustainable: constructing a controlled dump site combined with a sorting center and a composting site. Van Oers Senegal is willing to support the solutions in close collaboration with the villagers themselves who as well will take action to improve their own living environment.
More information: Sophie van den Berg
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| | | A Green City is our Home Strategy on Organic Waste Management
in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania ISWA is a key partner in the Municipal Solid Waste Initiative (MSWI) of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and as such it has been working closely with the Initiative on the leadership level and in project activities on the ground. In Dar es Salaam ISWA is an implementer of CCAC City Work Programmes since February 2014.
In the framework of this CCAC/ISWA project, WASTE was contracted to propose a strategy on organic waste management in Dar es Salaam. This strategy was developed in December 2016 in a strategy workshop basing their decision on the assessment done by ISWA and the baseline survey executed by BORDA (Bremen Overseas Development Institute), one of the key project partners.
More information: Sophie van den Berg
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| | WASTE COOP starts second phase of the Emergency Sanitation Project
Together with the International Red Cross, Oxfam GB and the Netherlands Red Cross, WASTE COOP participates in the second phase of the Emergency Sanitation Project. In ESP1 we have developed reliable methods to sanitize faecal sludge by means of lime, urea and lactic acid.
We now have reliable protocols to treat faecal sludge on household scale in laboratory conditions. To avoid problems with transport of hazardous faecal sludge from raised latrines to the disposal site, we now enter the phase where we sanitize the sludge in raised latrines BEFORE transfer. At the same time, we want to improve the conditions inside the raised latrines by reducing foul smell and fly and mosquito breeding. Therefore, the following activities are foreseen: Test willingness/appropriateness/effectiveness innovative add-ons such as Sato Seat Test willingness/appropriateness/effectiveness innovative treatment e.g. Aerosan/Kazuba Develop dosing & mixing equipment on-site treatment in raised latrines by 3rd party Test appropriateness/effectiveness prototype dosing & mixing equipment Purchase and test Callini membrane pump for emptying raised latrines More info: contact Jan Spit: jspit@waste.nl |
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WASTE approved as Actor of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC)
We are very proud to announce that CCAC has approved WASTE as an official Actor of their Waste Initiative. The CCAC is a global partnership of countries, international organisations and NGOs, seeking to rapidly reduce Short Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) such as black carbon, methane, and HFCs.
WASTE will be specifically involved in the MSW initiative: “Cities Reducing Emissions through Improved Waste Management,” which is a global initiative to bring cities together to mitigate short-lived climate pollutants from the municipal solid waste sector. The initiative is working closely with a number of major cities from all around the world including Sao Paolo and Dar es Salaam, to develop on-the-ground action plans to mitigate SLCPs by making improvements in waste management practices that can be scaled-up and include other benefits like job creation, improved public health and environmental conditions.
WASTE will work with cities, preferably in Africa, to improve their waste management and implement feasible technologies with impact on Climate Change. Are you interested? Please contact Verele de Vreede.
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| | Study on School Sanitation in Rajasthan, India Together with our partner FINISH Society we conducted a small study focused on school sanitation and other WASH related activities in a total of eleven schools in which FINISH Society is currently working.
The outcome of the study was that most children are well aware of the importance of good hygiene such as handwashing with soap at critical times.
The good state of most schools and the awareness of students is certainly due to the continuous interventions by FINISH Society.
In the future, more attention will need to be put on good menstrual hygiene management in the schools with older female students. Especially in the rural areas the schools had no good disposal system for sanitary pads. Furthermore, schools need to be taught how to monitor the level of the sludge in the pits so that this can be emptied in time. The safe
disposal of the sludge will have to be guaranteed.
More information: Alix Reichenecker |
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| | Sophie is on the jury for the Africa Green SEED Initiative For the second time, Sophie van den Berg has been asked to join the jury of the Seed initiative which has opened the Call for Applications for the 2017 SWITCH Africa Green (SAG) – SEED Awards. The SEED Awards for Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Development is an annual awards scheme designed to find the most promising, innovative and locally led start-up eco-inclusive enterprises. The call is open for enterprises in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa and Uganda. Waste management is one of the specific sectors this year.
The deadline for applications is March 8 2017. More information can be found on the SEED website: SAG SEED |
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