The solid waste management project in the Gaza Strip is consistent with the Palestinian National Solid Waste Management Strategy and the National Development Plan. The Gaza Strip suffers from poor resources and solid waste management infrastructure. The three official waste dumps have reached their maximum capacity, along with a number of temporary or random dumps that have exacerbated the environmental and service situation of the solid waste management sector.

An extensive feasibility study for the solid waste management sector in the Gaza Strip, including optimal investments in the solid waste management sector, was completed in 2012. It was recognized that efforts should be deployed on short- and long-term actions, with UNDP and its financial partners focusing on Short-term measures and the Gaza and northern Gaza Governorates, while the MDF and JSC and their financial partners focus on long-term actions and on Khan Younis, Rafah and Central governorates. This comprehensive approach serves the solid waste management sector in a more focused and effective way and to create a better environmental future for future generations.

About the project

Is an important strategic project aimed at improving solid waste management services by improving the infrastructure used in solid waste management and providing more efficient and appropriate environmental and social systems and capacity building of relevant institutions.

The solid waste management project will establish a sanitary waste dump in the southern area of ​​the Gaza Strip that will absorb solid waste to the central and southern governorates until 2025. The landfill will be ready to absorb solid waste from all the governorates of the Gaza Strip until 2040. The project is implemented through phases requiring a total area of ​​472 Donna, where the first phase of the project was funded in cooperation with the Development and Guarantee of the Project - Municipal Development and Lending Fund through the World Bank Group (WBG), the French Development Agency (AFD) and the European Union (EU). The first phase of the project includes the construction of the initial cells of the site and the infrastructure of the juice collection systems along with the administrative buildings and maintenance workshops according to the most appropriate engineering and environmental specifications.

Components of the project

The project has four main components:

Infrastructure:

• Constructing and equipping a new sanitary landfill in al-Fukhari area
• Construction and processing of two waste disposal plants
• Provision of operational equipment for the new health facility and the relay stations
• Rehabilitation of roads leading to landfill and transfer stations
• Implement a short-term re-development plan for people affected by the project
• Acquisition of land required for the implementation of the first phase of the construction of landfill

Institutional strengthening:

• Capacity Building of the Joint Services Council and Member Municipalities
• Implement awareness campaigns
• Enhancing citizen participation

Waste collection and recovery:

• Financing studies aimed at optimizing primary collection services for solid waste in the Gaza Strip
• Supply of equipment for collection of waste
• Conduct studies aimed at recovering the cost of waste collection
• Experimental investments for waste recycling and conversion to fertilizers

project management:

• Implementation of the Environmental and Social Management Plan
• Supervision of construction works
• Evaluation of project impacts on beneficiaries
• Management of landfill operations and transfer stations