While Tunisia has made significant progress in disposing of municipal waste, major obstacles still block the road to environmentally sound waste treatment and disposal. Despite concerted efforts by the Tunisian government, waste management today is neither integrated nor sustainable. Structural shortcomings persist in organisational, institutional, legal and financial matters, and in the involvement of the general public, as well as of the private sector.

Tunisia is to have a form of integrated and sustainable waste management based on the principle of avoidance first, utilisation second and regulated disposal last. To establish such a system, national bodies and municipalities must first agree on a strategy that meets sustainability criteria.

•

Dialogue and consultation: As part of the national waste management programme PRONAGDES, the sector’s major players have joined forces to develop a national waste management strategy. Consultants were called in to pinpoint the pertinent strategic, organisational, technical and financial questions. National committees were then set up to discuss and concur on these points. Models are now to be created on the regional and local levels for the implementation of integrated waste management. These will then take the form of pilot projects.

•

Further instruments: Greater private sector participation, inter-community cooperation and a recycling exchange are being developed and tested on the ground.

First elements for national integrated waste management were developed and put in place with the participation of all concerned, and with support from national and international experts. The existing legislative and institutional frameworks for the sector have been evaluated and recommendations made for first reforms. The national waste management authority ANGED has been assisted with both the waste disposal plant under construction and the search for better alternatives to waste dumping. In the process, other aspects of waste management – composting, waste-water treatment, mechanical-biological waste treatment, and utilisation of certain waste fractions – have also been put on the public agenda.