On March 30, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Libya Public Financial Management (LPFM/Bab al Tamkeen) project, held a workshop on developing an Operational Plan for Solid Waste Management in the Municipality of Al-Asabaa. LPFM/Bab al Tamkeen is supporting 22 pilot municipalities across the country to assess their solid waste management needs, project the cost of solid waste collection, and identify requirements for disposing of it in an environmentally safe manner. The analysis is being used to develop operational plans and longer-term infrastructure improvement plans for solid waste management tailored to each pilot municipality.
Al-Asabaa Municipality is among the project’s newest cohort of pilot sites, and is just launching the operational plan process. The workshop discussed the first phase of the operational plan, including how to integrate key data, such as the estimated amounts of solid waste produced each day, numbers of required service areas, numbers and locations of solid waste assembly points, and the types of personnel and equipment needed to ensure proper collection and transportation for each service area. The LPFM/Bab al Tamkeen project team also presented the expected outputs to come from the plan’s implementation, such as annual estimated budgets for providing solid waste management services for the municipality, an appropriate collection and transportation system, and a mechanism for monitoring the services and bill payments.
The workshop highlighted the focus of the operational plan on ensuring full transparency in the contracting process for public or private service providers. The introduction of private sector competition is meant to increase competitiveness in terms of both service price and service quality.
To encourage community participation in the municipality’s efforts to improve waste management, outreach to the community will be conducted to raise public awareness regarding the importance of separating garbage from recyclables, as well as the need to abide by the established collection dates for solid waste to prevent its proliferation.
Libya Public Financial Management (LPFM /Bab Al Tamkeen) is a 5-year initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Libya, implemented by the Pragma Corporation. It provides technical assistance and capacity building at national and municipal levels to strengthen Libya’s public financial management, revitalize the electricity sector, improve the delivery of key public services, and stimulate job and private sector growth.
