LIBYA – The Greater Tripoli area (Souq Al-Jumaa, Abu Salim, and Central Tripoli) has initiated a 30-month project worth US$1 million to improve plastic waste management.
The project is supported by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).
The UN says this is significant considering that over 85 percent of Libya’s population is concentrated in cities, particularly along the northern coastal strip.
Reducing the negative environmental impact per capita in cities is a significant challenge that necessitates special attention to air quality and the management of municipal and other wastes.
The project, as explained by the UN, aims to use plastic waste management as a starting point for recycling, reduce environmental pollution, create new job opportunities, and promote the adoption of circular business models in Libya.
Libya has faced a variety of bureaucratic impediments, resulting in a limited waste management system and poor infrastructure.
The majority of solid waste management regulations enacted before and after 2011 in Libya mandate that local governments be assigned to perform these services throughout the country.
The Ministry of Local Government is responsible for solid waste management throughout the country, while local municipal authorities have little or no involvement in managing this service.
The private sector’s contribution to investment in waste management and recycling infrastructure remains low, and the waste management sector is predominantly informal or ad hoc.
Large portions of the waste generated throughout Libya are currently disposed of through open dumping and unofficial landfills in certain areas of the country. Approximately 587 grams of solid waste per person per day are produced.
As a result, organic and inorganic waste is piling in informal landfills and dump sites in various areas around the country, especially in rural areas.
By prioritizing plastic waste management and recycling, this project aims to tackle environmental issues, promote sustainable practices, boost economic development, and improve the overall quality of life in the Greater Tripoli area.
Pollution plagues Libya beaches
Elsewhere, Tripoli’s Mediterranean coast is denying residents of the war-torn Libyan capital a much-needed escape with increased pollution of untreated sewage in the water and rubbish piled on the sand.
The Ministry of Environment has ordered the closure of several beaches along the 30-kilometer (18-mile) coastline of Greater Tripoli, despite the scorching summer heat.
Daily discharges of untreated sewage from the capital’s two million population make this the most polluted section of the North African country’s 1,770-kilometer coastline.
Cans, plastic bags and bottles plague the water and shore. On one beach, near a large hotel, open-air rivulets channel untreated wastewater into the sea, where a few young men brave the contaminated waters in search of cool.
Libya’s infrastructure has been devastated by a decade of conflict, state collapse and neglect since the 2011 overthrow and killing of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed rebellion.
