Small towns raised the issue of solid waste management with UNDP support
VII Annual Conference of small towns of Ukraine was devoted to Solid Waste Management and Implementation of Inter-municipal Cooperation. This topic is dramatically relevant for all tows and locations of Ukraine because only 75% of country population is covered with services related to household waste transportation. In rural areas this figure is only 30%.
Grygoriy Semchuk, Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine reminded the audience about 6 directions of housing and communal reform, enshrined in the National program for reforming and development of housing and communal services for the period of 2009 through 2014. These are: improvement of legal framework and management/governance, financial stabilization within the sector, technical re-equipment, personnel training and information campaigns among wide public.
According to world practice, population costs for solid waste management amounts for 1% of the average income, while this costs in Ukraine are 0.2%. Such a situation does not serve for implementation of new approaches to waste collection and disposal. Despite of a number of problems within SWM sector, Ukraine has some success. Thus, due to implementation of separate collection of waste in 185 localities, operation of 12 waste sorting and 3 waste combustion plans about 8% of solid household waste is processed and disposed annually. This information was provided by Oleksandr Ihnatenko, Director of the Department of landscaping and communal services of the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine.
Kostyantyn Vaschenko, First Vice-President of National Academy for Public Administration, proposed some steps aimed at improving SWM. First of all, there should be stimulation and motivation, which can be guaranteed by implementation of regressive tax scale for enterprises working in SWM sector and using innovative technologies. Secondly, changes should be made in a budget, i.e.: financial resources of towns should be increased to solve the problems on local level. Thirdly, we should develop “public – private” partnership between state, consumers and business as well as improve current legislation.
Leonid Tulovs’ky, expert on quality control of UNDP project “Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Program” told the audience about the progress of inter-municipal project on implementation of integrated approach to SWM. This project is aimed at solving the problems related to solid waste management in Tul’chyn rayon. The project is implemented by Tul’chyn rayon state administration, Tul’chyn rayon council, Tul’chyn municipal council, Suvorivs’ke and Kynashiv village councils with the support of Swiss-Ukrainian project “Decentralization support in Ukraine” and UNDP project “Municipal governance and sustainable development program”.
According to experts’ opinion, information campaign and raising public awareness should accompany implementation of innovative approaches to solid waste management. “Less waste – better life” campaign takes place in Tul’chyn rayon with UNDP/MGSDP support. It covers all population groups, i.e.: school pupils, students, local communities representatives, entrepreneurs, etc. Valeriy Vesnyany, Tul’chyn mayor said: “Information campaign, like the one in Tul’chyn, should take place all over the country. We should teach people to deal with waste in a civilized manner”.
In their Resolution, Conference’s participants appealed to Ministry of Economy and Trade of Ukraine to take measures related to financing of State target program on support of social and economic development of small towns for the period of 2011 through 2015. The program presupposes ensuring financing for purchasing special equipment for transportation of solid household waste. Also, participants addressed the relevant committee of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine to create a working group on drafting amendments to laws and regulatory documents related to mandatory conclusion of Agreements on waste transportation, recycling and disposal. Besides, the Conference proposed to introduce state regulation of tariffs for recyclables. It will economically stimulate solid household waste sorting. Another propositions concerned the possibility to use state enterprise “Ukrecoresurs” to purchase equipment for sorting, recycling and disposal of solid waste in small towns and to consolidate the law on inter-municipal cooperation mechanism.