“At this stage, I must say that Fiji has a very good case study in terms of Solid Waste Management”.
This was highlighted by the Director for the Ministry of Local Government, Bindula Devi during her presentation at the Local Government Waste Management Master Plan on J-PRISMⅡ on the Position of the Waste Management Master Plans for Local Government.
The Japanese Technical Cooperation Project for Promotion of Regional Initiative on Solid Waste Management in Pacific Island Countries Phase 2 (J-PRISMⅡ) is hoping to be completed by 2022.
According to Ms Devi the solid waste management and development control issues in rural areas are now under the Municipal Council which then falls under the Ministry for Local Government.
“We are ahead of the other Pacific Island Countries when we talk about managing solid waste from around the country, so Fiji is doing well.”
While elaborating on the master plan Devi said, “the objective is to ensure that we can establish a basis so the Municipal council can work on to ensure that we can manage solid waste appropriately.”
“We do understand that there are waste management issues, issues such as landfills and illegal dumping in rural areas, people still don’t have a system where they are able to manage solid waste and this is why we need a master plan.”
“Because we have case studies from different municipal councils we are aware of the status and the constraints faced in different areas.”
“Having that knowledge will now help us develop a master plan and the master plan could be the basis of the policies and decision making to achieve the objective of the plan.”
Present at the workshop held at the Suva Civic Centre were the Suva, Lami, Nasinu, Levuka, Labasa and Savusavu town councils.