Thursday, 15
October 2009 - The project is part of a
£20 million UK-funded programme to
improve the sustainable use of natural resources
in Sudan, to be carried out by the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) over
the next three years.
Gareth Thomas, Minister
of State at the UK Department of International
Development (DFID) will visit Juba today
to launch a UNEP project to establish long-term
waste management capacity in Southern Sudan.
To kick-start the project,
UNEP will organize a clean-up campaign in
Juba, in collaboration with Government of
Southern Sudan, sister UN Agencies and local
organizations.
Taking place on 23 November,
Juba Clean-Up will mobilize 16,000 volunteers
to tackle the growing health hazard caused
by public dumping of waste in the metropolitan
area.
With the rapid growth
of the city and the absence of a sustainable
waste management system, the people of Juba
have endured repeated fatal outbreaks of
cholera, waterborne diseases and malaria.
The clean-up, which
will be replicated in the nine states of
Southern Sudan, will be coupled with a sustained
awareness-raising campaign to encourage
the citizens of Juba to adopt an environmentally
friendly attitude towards the disposal of
waste in the city.
The initiative forms
part of country-wide environmental programme
implemented by UNEP to assist the people
of Sudan to achieve sustainable peace, recovery
and development by improving the management
of natural resources.
Speaking from UNEP headquarters
in Nairobi, Achim Steiner, Executive Director
and UN Under-Secretary-General, said: "UNEP
thanks the United Kingdom and DFID Sudan
for supporting the environmental agenda
there. The Juba clean-up not only marks
the beginning of an important project that
will have concrete and positive impacts
on the population of Southern Sudan - it
also takes forward UNEP's collaboration
with Sudan to improve environmental management
as a critical pre-requisite of sustainable
development."
In addition to the waste
management project, the recently established
UNEP office in Juba will provide technical
support to the Government to manage its
forests and other valuable natural resources
in a sustainable manner, and work to build
the capacity of Government ministries to
address environmental issues affecting Southern
Sudan and implement the 24 recommendations
of UNEP's Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment,
published in June 2007.
Notes to Editors:
After the signing of
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)
in January 2005, the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) was requested to conduct
a Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment
of Sudan. The assessment was conducted in
2006 and a comprehensive report was launched
in July 2007.
The Sudan Post-Conflict
Environmental Assessment report (http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/UNEP_Sudan.pdf)
includes assessments of water, agriculture,
forests, desertification and natural disasters,
wildlife, the marine environment, industrial
pollution, the urban environment, environmental
governance and the role of environmental
pressures in Sudan's conflicts. The report
makes 85 recommendations and outlines a
detailed government action plan with a total
estimated national cost of US$120 million
over three to five years. The assessment
and recommendations form the basis of UNEP's
continuing engagement in Sudan.
With funding from DFID
and USAID, UNEP established an office in
Khartoum in November 2007 to follow through
the recommendations and support delivery
of the environmental elements of Sudan's
Comprehensive Peace Agreements and other
national priorities.
During the period 2007-2009,
three projects were implemented in Darfur:
the Darfur Timber and Energy, the Integrated
Water Resources Management, and the Aid
and Environment Projects.
The new phase of the
programme, which is supported by a £20
million grant from DFID over three years,
marks the expansion of the programme and
the establishment of project offices in
Juba and in El Fasher, in Darfur.
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson/Head of
Media
