National Solid Waste Management Strategy

The National Solid Waste Management Strategy has been developed and being implemented in line with provisions of Section 5 and Section 56 of the Environmental Management Act No. 7 of 2007. The strategy has an important role to play with regard to solid waste management in Namibia and is suitably comprehensive and ambitious – its overall vision is for Namibia to become the leading country in Africa in terms of solid waste management by 2028. The Strategy lays out step by step approach for Namibia to achieve the strategic objectives, which are to: 1. Strengthen the institutional, organizational and legal framework for solid waste management, including capacity development; 2. Install a widespread culture of waste minimization and to expand recycling systems; 3. Implement formalized solid waste collection and management systems in all populated areas, including under the administration of Regional Councils; 4. Enforce improvements in municipal waste disposal standards; and 5. Plan and implement feasible options for hazardous waste management. Additionally, the strategy sets out key performance indicator and targets as follows: Key performance indicator Target % of municipalities with adopted Solid Waste Management (SWM) Plans 100% by December 2019 % of Regional Councils with adopted SWM plans 100% by December 2019 % of Municipalities achieving minimum waste disposal standards 100% by April 2020 % of all municipalities achieving minimum waste disposal standards 100% by December 2020 In order to achieve above mentioned objectives and targets, the implementation of the strategy has been divided into four (4) phases as follows: • Phase 1: Implementation framework (2017 – 2019): Effective implementation of the strategy requires coordinated approach by a number of institutions and organizations in order to set the scene leading to detailed implementation in Phase 2. • Phase 2: Implementation of the core components (2018 – 2023): Mostly this phase will be implemented once implementation framework in Phase 1 has been set, with the exception of those activites to be implemented parallel with activities in Phase 1 • Phase 3: Development of major infrastructure (2020 – 2023): This phase requires planning in order to enable its effective implementation, hence data need to be collected and inventories should be in place to guide improvements and developments of infrastructures. • Phase 4: Update of the Strategy (2023): Review of the strategy will need to be done in order to respond to issues of concern at the time and to close identified gaps. Provision has been made in the strategy for the establishment of a cross sectoral Solid Waste Management Advisory Panel in order to guide and oversee the implementation of the strategy through employing the following activities among others:  Provision of strategic advice and steering the direction of solid waste management policies and activities at the national level; to ensure that future directions, regulations, and action plans to improve solid waste management are properly coordinated and consistent with national policy and facilitate cooperation between stakeholders.  To identify potential funding mechanisms in different ministries, private sectors, Non-Governmental Organizations and development partners.