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(Traduction en préparation)

Municipal Solid Waste Management is one of the most serious environmental concerns in the Mashreq and Maghreb countries, especially because of its adverse effects on the quality of life, human health, natural resources, and on economic development. During the past few years, most of the countries have realized the importance of integrated solid waste management and recognized the need to address this challenge. Furthermore, many national solid waste strategies and programs are currently being prepared by all countries that are expressing a strong interest in furthering their efforts in tackling solid waste management in a more comprehensive and cost effective way. Despite the considerable efforts by many countries to address the existing situation, much work is still needed to meet the challenges of improving the current management conditions.

As a result, the World Bank, through the Mediterranean Environmental Technical Assistance Program (METAP) secretariat at World Bank headquarters, has established a Solid Waste Management Pillar with the objective of promoting the principles of integrated Solid Waste Management throughout the METAP Mashreq and Maghreb countries (Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan, Palestinian Territories Syria and Tunisia). The Regional Solid Waste Management Project (RSWM Project), financed by the European Commission under its Short and Medium Environment Action program (SMAP), was designed to fill an important gap in the solid waste management system.

This Project, aims particularly at; a) providing tools to national and sub-national (i.e. regional and/or municipal) institutions to plan, design, implement, operate, and manage ISWM systems, through the preparation of development capacity modules, development of operational guidelines, and the organization of national and regional training courses; b) promoting the exchange of information and experiences within the region in the field of solid waste management; and c) strengthening the national, municipal, and NGOs capacities and expertise.

The implementation of the RSWM project has officially started in January 2002; A Regional Management Group (RMG) has been established within the Tunisian "Agence Nationale de Protection de l'Environnement (ANPE)" for day to day management of the project. An international consortium (IC) comprising GTZ/ERM/GKW was appointed to provide expertise in implementing the project; the IC is supported by local consultants in each of the beneficiary countries.

This Regional Solid Waste Management Project will gradually shift in to a regional centre of expertise taking stock of the project activities, outputs and achievements.