Poor management of solid waste and waste water is affecting vulnerable population’s health in marginalized urban areas, as they do not have the financial means to avoid or bypass the contamination (i.e. local markets, households, schools or children’s recreational centers near contaminative waste dumps). In addition, women and children are literally in the front lines of exposure to toxins in the environment, and are more likely to have early and prolonged exposure to water-borne pollutants in the food chain. Environmental Management (EM) legal framework, supervision and quality control is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Environment and Water, however, municipal governments are by law in charge for planning and sustainable management of waste water and solid waste, with the duty to supervise investments and assure participation of the local population. Municipalities don’t have adequate infrastructure, equipment and staff with technical capacity to manage properly its service provision, therefore cannot cope with increasing volumes of solid waste and waste water. The level of awareness and commitment is clearly increasing among the population and authorities but needs to be strengthened further, as environmental awareness is for example poorly addressed in school curricula, and there is insufficient will of the population to pay fees for operational costs coverage.

Intermediary cities reduce levels of environmental pollution.

Population who work or live near sources of pollution (garbage pickers, sweepers, farmers, workers, agricultural producers and consumers and people living in slum settlements), especially women and children that are more exposed to pollution.

20 Municipalities

Direct Beneficiaries: 240.000 women, children and men.

Indirect Beneficiaries: 480.000 people.

Outcome 1.

Enhanced, effective and sustainable WWT SWM.

Outcome 2.

Population is capable and effectively engaged in the management of solid waste and wastewater   

Outcome 3.

Local institutions capable of providing environmental management services.

Expected results:  

Water treated in urban areas of the municipalities of the project’s coverage.

Construction or enhancement of 8 wastewater treatment plants. 2 for each region

4 tailor made infrastructures for solid waste re-collection and disposal. One for each region.

At least 15 garbage collection system in the project’s coverage area

4 environmental education campaigns have been implemented, reaching 480’000 people

Formal processes of training and capacitation in environmental management implemented, reaching at least 100 local technicians

At least 15 agreements on fees/rates for service operation and maintenance in the project’s coverage area.

At least 4 multistakeholder and multilevel agreements oriented to the effective exercise of competences and responsibilities in environmental management.

4 Regional support units adequately remunerated for high quality services in environmental management

Results from previous phases:  

• The main findings from the process (entry proposal and Feasibility Study) are:
• Focus on water and garbage; as they are two topics closely linked by municipal responsibility.
• Environmental Management EM should be addressed comprehensively during the PCM. EM infrastructure must be co-financed in order to guarantee the quality of the planning and investments and complemented with capacity building and awareness processes
• The execution must be decentralized in order to guarantee the effectiveness of the technical assistance and the sustainability of the intervention.
• The overall objective must be the reduction of pollution with impact on the improvement of the population’s health  

EAWAG - EPFL

Sanitation services providers

Local and foreing universities

Private companies

Ministry of Water and Environment

20 Municipal Governments

Sweden/Dutch Technical Cooperation Service – SNV´s Learning Node Water, Development Bank of Latin America CAF and World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program

Phase 1 01.05.2013 - 31.03.2019   (Completed)