Environmental concerns in occupied Palestinian territory are intensifying, particularly around waste management. Currently, 47 per cent of all waste, including hazardous waste, is disposed of in unsanitary dump sites, while just 3 per cent of rubbish is recycled. If left unaddressed, these waste management issues could pose both environmental risks and seriously impact the health of Palestinians.
Despite its complicated geopolitical situation, the State of Palestine is committed to resolving these issues and has spent several years improving waste management, joining several international environmental accords, including the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Minamata conventions.
In order to support these ongoing efforts, the Chemicals and Waste Management Programme of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is partnering with Palestine on an ambitious two-year project to strengthen the country’s institutional capacity for managing hazardous waste and chemicals.
The State of Palestine already has some legislation and institutional structures governing environment and hazardous waste-related matters. However, there are gaps, inconsistencies and overlaps, as well as continuing challenges due to political and geographic limitations.
In order to address these ongoing hurdles, the State of Palestine has established a national committee for hazardous waste and chemicals. It will focus on developing recommendations to strengthen both legislation and institutional capacity in order to improve waste and chemicals management throughout the project and in the years that follow.
The State of Palestine will also strengthen the knowledge of waste and chemical management authorities. This work will focus primarily on the Environment Quality Authority, Ministry of National Economy, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Health. But the awareness-raising effort will also include other institutions, private sector players and research institutions. The aim is to make adherence to the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Minamata conventions an enduring part of Palestinian public policy.
The project will help the State of Palestine combat the illegal transportation of hazardous waste, chemical waste and electronic waste.
The Palestinian Government will also collect and refine information on waste and chemicals, ensuring this data is shared widely among relevant agencies. This will increase awareness of this issue among both political decision makers and the general public so that chemicals and waste management become a priority beyond this project.
Throughout the project, the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority will ensure that gender balance is considered. Already, 40 per cent of its staff are women, and the authority will work to engage women as key members in the implementation of the project. The project will also take into account international and local case studies on the health risks of exposure to toxic chemicals.
