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HEPCA 2011 Review - Hurghada Solid Waste Management

2011 has witnessed unprecedented growth in HEPCA, most remarkably in the field of solid waste management. On the 10th of February HEPCA undertook sole responsibility for the collection of solid waste in Hurghada, a city with a population of more than 300,000 people and a daily solid waste production rate in the range of 450 and 500 tons! This project materialized into over 23 million pounds of equipment and more than 500 employees. The city council awarded HEPCA the contract for the collection of solid waste through a public tender in which HEPCA had presented the lowest price and highest technical specifications. HEPCA’s offer, at an annual cost of 16 million pounds faced offers from two competing companies which had priced their services at 24 and 32 million. The competing companies adhered to the minimum tender requirements of 34 trucks in their offers, twenty of which were uncovered tippers, while HEPCA’s offer entailed almost sixty trucks with a wide range of capabilities. Funds were secured mainly through a no interest loan from the chamber of hotels –representing the tourism industry which had suffered the most from the lack of consistent solid waste collection. The loan is to be reimbursed over the period of five years, which is the duration of HEPCA’s contract with the city council. HEPCA’s endeavour into the field of solid waste management was due to the blatant lack of an effective management system, which has had dire impacts on both the local and global environment. The magnitude of the adverse impacts of the quantities of solid waste produced on our ecosystem is frightful: if only 5% of the plastic bags disposed of in Hurghada end up in the sea, it is estimated that they would potentially lead to the death of more than 250 seabirds and 25 marine mammals every month! The lack of effective management had also posed a serious threat to public health and on city aesthetically impacting both the resident and visiting community and the long-term economic benefit of the city and country as a whole. The HEPCA SW collection system has been customized according to the city’s needs, with different types of trucks operating in areas of different characteristics and with consideration to growth over upcoming years. The solid waste management of Hurghada was placed under the umbrella of the Hayat Project, an initiative launched in 2008 for projects based on community involvement and participation. A team of specialists was formed in order to manage this project; approximately 350 workers are on the streets daily working 8 hour shifts (one of which is a lunch break), workers are provided with both social and health insurance and receive a minimum of a EGP900 salary. HEPCA began SW collection in some districts of Hurghada one moth prior to our contract initiation date on the 1st of January, in order to fill the void that had resulted from the lack of management and gradually phase in collection coverage throughout the city. Due to the glorious unforeseen events in the early months of the year, the arrival of segment of our equipment and trucks was postponed. Nearly 75% of the street containers scheduled to arrive by boat in Alexandria on the 28th of January were discovered over a month later on a pier in the Port Said port. After several other similar delays our fleet was completed in August. The HEPCA solid waste collection fleet in Hurghada now includes: six 18m3 compactors, ten 16m3 compactors, eight 10m3 enclosed box trucks, five 9m3 compactors, two 9m3 tippers, ten 2m3 tippers, two hook-lift trucks to carry eleven 12m3 containers, two street sweepers with a 7m3 capacity as well as two skid loaders, not to mention supervision and maintenance vehicles as well as four new compact street sweepers that will be introduced at the beginning of the year. In contrast to the tender requirements of 500 street containers, 1000 have already been placed throughout Hurghada’s streets. Despite the fact that there is an obvious and dramatic improvement throughout the streets of the city, we are still far from our targeted standard. There are many obstacles that HEPCA’s solid waste management team face on a daily basis; most of which require a greater deal of cooperation and support from the community and enforcement agencies. Despite the fact that almost double the number of the required waste containers was placed in the streets of Hurghada, we have found that in some areas they do not encompass all the waste, although they are emptied a minimum of twice daily, while some are collected six times a day! There are several reasons for this: Many shops, businesses and institutions which in accordance to the city council are required to provide their own containers –sufficient to encompass 24 hours of their waste, do not have containers or do not use them and rather utilise those provided by HEPCA for residents. A single restaurant can fill containers allotted for several hundred homes, leaving them overflowing with waste. To further the dilemma more than one hundred and fifty containers have been stolen or damaged beyond repair; most often due to people setting them on fire. Segregators working illegally throughout the streets of Hurghada are a daily challenge to the outcome of our work. On a daily basis in nearly all districts of Hurghada, illegal segregators are tipping over waste containers picking out recyclables and leaving the remaining waste scattered along the streets and pavements of the city. Policing this matter requires a serious commitment by enforcement agencies who have failed to find a solution thus far. Moreover many hotels continue to sell their waste to these illegal segregators, who simply pick out items of value and dump the remaining waste along the streets of Hurghada, most noticeably along the airport road and ring road. The dumping of construction waste in the streets of Hurghada is also a rampant problem. The shear amount of construction waste, produced by the immense amount of building taking place throughout the city, which is dumped in vacant lots and along the streets, is a constant hindrance to our collection system. HEPCA’s contract does not entail the collection of construction waste, yet the existence of piles of construction waste in the streets encourages the dumping of domestic waste among it. Sand and dust from this waste is consistently being dispersed throughout the streets and pavements burdening our team with unnecessary toil. Another major contest to the cleanliness of the city is a portion of the community that lacks the behavioural awareness concerning waste disposal. Day after day we witness citizens who dispose of their waste on the road, pavement, or on a vacant lot often next to an empty container; those who dump their waste without the use of a rubbish bag in and out of containers, those who do not close the lids of containers resulting in feral animals tipping over containers, cutting open bags of waste and spreading it across the streets and promote the aggregation of insects and rodents, and individuals that dump flammable and hazardous wastes in waste containers posing a health and safety hazard as well as damage to the containers. In order to alleviate the abovementioned dilemmas we require a strong commitment from the community as a whole; HEPCA is in the process of launching an extensive awareness campaign in schools and community centres, with youth groups and eventually in all streets of Hurghada. We need all members of the community to take a proactive role in the proper management of our waste and the conservation of our natural resources which are at risk, starting from the adherence to the best practices for disposal of every individual’s waste, the waste of their place of work and to the spreading of awareness concerning the issue to others. Currently in Hurghada HEPCA only manages the collection of waste; we hope in the near future to undertake the comprehensive management of the city’s waste. A detailed study of the characteristics of the Hurghada’s waste is currently being conducted; the results of this study shall provide us with the data required to select the most suitable methodology to manage the waste and gain the optimal benefit from it and minimal environmental impact. The study will provide us with data concerning the feasibility of electricity generation from this waste and potentially the reduction of the city’s carbon footprint to zero.