Palestine Authority

Country Data

An estimated 1.1 million tonnes of municipal solid waste were generated in Palestine in 2001, growing at an estimated 4.0 percent per year.  Municipal solid wastes continue to be inadequately managed in many parts of Palestine, although improvements have been achieved as a result of investment and institutional initiatives over the past decade.  Waste collection systems have left large areas (estimated at 25 percent of the population) of towns and villages unserviced.  The majority of collected waste is managed through land disposal.  In the West Bank land disposal facilities are dumps, which have proliferated in recent years as a result of security circumstances that periodically prevent waste collection vehicles from reaching disposal sites; at least 450 illegal dumps have been created in the West Bank at the same time as municipalities have taken steps to rehabilitate established dumps. In the Gaza Strip, most wastes are managed in landfills established with donor support.  Hazardous wastes may be inappropriately managed with non-hazardous municipal wastes, particularly in the West Bank; waste oil and biomedical wastes are known to be dumped with non-hazardous municipal wastes.  In Gaza, a hazardous waste cell provides for management of these types of waste.

A legal framework through which to provide for effective waste management has not been adopted in Palestine, although an Environment Law has been adopted which provides a framework through which decrees could be issued to provide a legal framework for the sector.  An environmental strategy that would articulate environmental priorities, including those related to solid waste management, has been drafted but has not been adopted.  In the absence of environmental legal frameworks, the sector operates solely under municipal law that defines municipal responsibility for waste management services and which provides for municipalities to establish "joint service councils" through which they may collaborate in the delivery of municipal services, including waste management; an increasing number of municipalities are participating in such initiatives.

Solid waste management investment has depended on the international donor/lender community for many years.  Local ability to finance solid waste management initiatives is highly limited.  Although provisions in municipal legislation provide for waste management cost recovery fees, these are generally not implemented (except in Gaza) or not enforced even though waste management services typically account for 30 percent of municipal waste management budgets.  Overall tax collection efficiency is very low, and varies between 20 - 40 percent.  Reports in the mid-1990's pointed to an absence of any effective municipal waste management cost accounting in the West Bank and it is not clear that the situation has improved.

Notwithstanding poor municipal finance and reliance on external sources of finance for waste management infrastructure, progress has been made with respect to the disposal of waste.  Landfills in the Gaza Strip, including one with a hazardous waste cell, and a landfill project at Jenin in the West Bank have been implemented.  Additional landfills in the West Bank have been approved and can proceed once financing has been identified.  In all cases, landfills are conceived as regional facilities to serve several municipalities. On the other hand, an absence of adequate planning, technology specification and institutional coordination has resulted in 9 of 12 medical incinerators provided as a grant not being used.

The private sector participates in the waste management sector as a service provider to municipalities and to industrial/commercial waste generators.  However, the private sector does not participate in financing waste management infrastructure.

In the Gaza Strip, innovative community-based work has raised public awareness around waste management issues; similar work has not been taken in the West Bank, however.  Also in the Gaza Strip, capacity building in all aspects of waste management has been undertaken at the local level in connection with investments in the sector; local waste management capacities in the West Bank have not benefited from similar strengthening.  Sectoral capacities at the national level are also weak.

Priorities for action in the solid waste management sector in Palestine include:

· Creation of an adequate legal framework in support of defined ISWM policy objectives.
· Implementation of joint service councils for waste management throughout Palestine.
· Restructuring and effective implementation/enforcement of municipal financing for waste management.
· Adoption of waste management "polluter pay" and "user pay" principles, within the context of ability to   pay.
· Consideration of private sector financing of waste management infrastructure.
· Continuing initiatives to build waste management capacity at national and local levels, and to raise   public awareness of waste management issues.
· Continuing need for solid waste management infrastructure and, particularly, consideration of   economically attractive opportunities for composting and for recycling.

Many aspects of the waste management sector will be more readily addressed at such time as the political situation in Palestine stabilises.  However, when that happens it is anticipated that large numbers of displaced people and others will return to Palestine and that economic growth will also return.  Both of these factors will serve to increase waste generation and the technical and financial challenges associated with waste management.  Actions now to minimise waste generation (e.g. application of "polluter pay" and "user pay" concepts) can prepare Palestine to address these challenges.

For more details please consult the attached country report [...]