Representatives of the local government of Anabta, a municipality in the governorate of Tulkarem, in Palestine, and representatives of the Palestinian Technical University - Kadoorie, organized a conference in early April to explain the local benefits of the implementation of the DECOST pilot activity in the locality. For Anabta, this project funded by ENI CBC Med has been an opportunity to be pioneers in Palestine in the incorporation of home and community composting for the large-scale management of municipal organic waste.

During the press conference, Eng. Fadel Fuqaha, Anabta’s Mayor, pointed out that the Municipality suffers heavy costs, as other local municipalities of the region, related with the disposal of solid waste in landfills. This approach, says the mayor, is a risky strategy because of the threats of closure of the Zaharat Alfunjan landfill. “The project has cutback much of these costs and raised the Anabta’s citizens’ awareness of sorting out waste as way of life and great benefits from compost” he emphasized.

Mr. Fuqaha said that the positive indicators and the interest of the citizens were a sign of the project's success. In this regard, he thanked Palestine Technical University – Kadoorie, the European Union, and other project partners for choosing Anabta as the first town in Palestine to implement this unique project and improve the environment and the waste management system in the town.

The engineer supervising the project by the municipality of Anabta, Eng. Murad Abdel Halim, explained that the project was carried out through specific stages with determined goals and expectations, and that it ran in two phases, one of which was for the distribution of about 400 home composter units, and the other was a community full-electronic unit with a capacity of 7 cubic meter.

Abdel Halim pointed out some difficulties during the implementation of the project due to the low culture and understanding of the citizens on how to sort waste. These were partly solved thanks to awareness campaigns organized by Kadoorie University, targeting citizens and school pupils. Social media pages also disseminated knowledge and technical solutions for the sorting process. 

“It takes time to learn waste separation and adopt it as a component of the housing rules, however, small numbers just began to indicate a decrease in the amount of waste produced at present time” he concluded. The engineer also commented that DECOST allowed them to gain unique and special work experience during their supervision of environmental monitoring.

Successful stories

Fatima Canaan's DECOST experience is one example of the success stories related to this project in Palestine. Canaan is a housewife who grows various crops and raises domestic animals from which she gets some products. She is happy when it is time for her hard work to be rewarded, for example when she gets fertiliser for her own trees. 

She says that the results are wonderful after replacing chemical fertilisers by organic and natural ones, adding that the amounts of household waste are also lower than ever. She is satisfied to see that this organic waste can be used as natural fertilisers once the compost has been obtained.

Ms. Canaan expressed thanks to the Anabta Municipality for giving her the chance to benefit from the project, to the PTUK staff for the following-up across all stages, and to the donor and funder ENI CBC Med Programme.

A well identified challenge

The coordinator of the DECOST project at the Palestinian Technical University of Kadoorie, Dr Tahseen Sayara, said that the problem of solid waste management is considered one of the most important problems faced by Palestinian local authorities, and that there is an urgent need to find quick solutions to reduce the costs involved, as well as to preserve the environment.

Dr. Sayara indicated that the DECOST project was implemented in partnership with a group of entities from other Mediterranean countries and included the establishment of four pilot plants for composting organic fraction of municipal solid waste in Spain, Palestine, Jordan, and Italy. In addition, the project was the driving force behind many other activities related with the improvement of the solid waste management knowledge at local level. In this regard, he thanked the European Union for funding the project, “which is considered a successful initiative in solving the solid waste problem in Palestine”.

He also added that “In Palestine, about 55% of municipal waste is organic materials that can be recycled to produce compost instead of being sent to a landfill. This system reduces waste management costs and preserves the environment in several aspects”.

Dr Sayara explained that the project implementation in Anabta included the distribution of home composting units for compost production, and the construction of a big community composting unit, which is considered the first of its kind in Palestine. These systems are reducing the costs of waste collection, transport, and final disposal by converting the organic fraction into compost, which prolongs the life of the local landfill, as well as other benefits. PTUK project staff, in collaboration with the Anabta Municipality, worked to carry out numerous awareness-raising activities to inform citizens about the project, its importance and how to treat the compost production units. The team was also involved in the monitoring of the implementation of the project, helping the beneficiaries in case of any problems.

He also indicated that, despite the challenges that were faced during the implementation of the project, obtaining many success stories constituted a catalyst to move forward with the project, and these stories encouraged many to actively participate in the project, and the project's enthusiasm reached many other local communities that they expressed interest in implementing such kind of projects. Likewise, he also remembered that the Ministry of Local Government indicated that it would implement the idea of home compost system in twenty schools in Palestine to educate the new generation on the importance of waste recycling through these units, which Dr. Sayara considered as another success for the project idea. 

For the Palestine Technical University, the DECOST project has been an opportunity to fulfilling one of its missions, which is community service. Dr Sayara wished the citizens of Anabta to continue using the systems that were set for them and indicated that the university will remain in contact with the municipality to follow up on the project even after its term ends.