Empowering women and protecting the environment through waste management

Recently, Peter MacDougall, Ambassador of Canada to Jordan, and Jordan’s Prime Minister Hani Al-Mulki, inaugurated the first environmentally friendly sanitary cell at Al-Akeider landfill in Irbid. Ten other ministers were also present, including the ministers for Environment, Planning, Municipal Affairs, Health, and Interior.

Canada is helping Jordan improve its solid waste management services in the Northern regions of Irbid and Mafraq, through the rehabilitation of the Al-Akeidar landfill. This project is being implemented by UNDP in partnership with the ministry of Municipal Affairs. Canada contributed $15 million dollars to the project to build a new sanitary cell using the highest environmental standards, improve the life and working conditions of waste pickers, and increase the efficiency of solid waste collection and transfer from 33 municipalities in Irbid and Mafraq. Canada has recently increased its funding by $4.8 million to build two transfer stations which will allow for recycling of metal and plastic; and to construct a composting facility which will reduce the volume of solid waste in the landfill, thus extending its lifetime. Strong women’s economic participation and empowerment are central to this project extension. In fact, the composting facility will be managed and operated by women from the surrounding community, offering training and job opportunities for women in packaging and marketing compost products to households and local businesses.

Ambassador MacDougall noted that Canada was pleased to be taking the lead among donors to rehabilitate the Al-Akeidar landfill, and added that: “Canada strongly believes the challenges host communities are facing as a result of the Syrian crisis require more than a humanitarian response; they require an approach that leaves something behind.”

Prime Minister Al-Mulki mentioned that rehabilitating Al-Akeidar landfill was a priority for the Government of Jordan and that the new sanitary cell will help “put an end to an environmental catastrophe”. Minister of Municipal Affairs, Waleed Al-Masri, reiterated that the old Al-Akeidar landfill “was one of the main environmental challenges in Jordan for the last 25 years,” and concluded that “this challenge has ended today with the inauguration of the new sanitary cell.”

This video provides an overview of the extent to which this project has helped turn an environmental challenge into an opportunity for the surrounding community.