Highlights

Solid waste - a burning issue in the region

Solid waste management in the beneficiary countries of the Mediterranean Environmental Technical Assistance Project (METAP) is an immediate priority:

• Over 50 percent of the region's 160 million inhabitants live in urban areas that already have difficulty meeting the basic service needs of their population - and their populations are growing rapidly.
• Across the region, countries spent an estimated $US 325 - 400 million in 2000 on solid waste management. Increasing waste generation is a guarantee that this amount will increase in future.
• Analysis in 2000 indicated that the 1998 - 2010 period could see an increase of 44 percent in the amount of waste generated in the region.
• Generally across the region, the solid waste management sector is inadequately structured and regulated, resulting in service inequalities, risks to public health and threats to environmental resources.

The Mediterranean Environmental Technical Assistance Project (METAP) Regional Solid Waste Management Project (RSWMP) has been developed with the national governments of the region, to assist in catalysing appropriate responses to the challenge of effectively managing solid wastes.

The World Bank, with the financial support of the European Commission, has established a Regional Management Group at ANPE and engaged the International Consortium GTZ-ERM-GKW for carrying out the Integrated Solid Waste Management Project.

RSWMP will launch technical assistance activities and will deliver and apply a suite of outputs to capacity building for integrated solid waste management (ISWM) in the METAP beneficiary countries.