Yvonne Nana Afua Idun asked:


Located in the Middle East region, Jordan borders Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Palestine. The population of this country should be approximately 6.5 million people by 2010. Agriculture is one of this country’s main sources of income and is especially promoted in the Jordan Valley. Over the past few decades, the problems which confront this country have included unemployment, low income levels and littering of wastes from all sectors. These problems are particularly rife in Palestine refugee camps in Jordan such as Weidhard and Zarqa camps where many women do not have access to jobs.  These refugee camps are one of the ten refugee camps in Jordan which accommodate some 326,000 refugees, making about 18 per cent of the 1,840,000 refugees registered with the office of UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, located in Jordan.  If the refugees living in the three unofficial camps and in camps’ environs were to be added to that number, it can be said that about 65 per cent of the Palestine refugees in Jordan live under similar socio-economic conditions.

In the light of the socio-economic problems in all the Palestinian camps, , it would be greatly recommended international agencies such as UNRWA, relevant UN bodies, the Arab League, NGOs and government of Jordan implement a project in Weidhard Refugee Camp and other similar refugee camps in Jordan. The main problems of Weidhard Refugee Camps include: deterioration of buildings and constructed areas; littering and stockpiles of waste; inconsistencies in the removal of waste; high levels of unemployment, particularly among women; high costs of fertilizer to use in farming; and

lack of the impact of the workings of environmental clubs.

Such a project could empower women, the youth and leaders in Weidhard Refugee Camp to engage in income-generating activities by collecting, recycling and selling some forms of waste for further use. This project will also help resolve the environmental problem of waste management, which has devastating impacts of pollution and climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases and other hazardous gases (from waste), negatively affects the health and living conditions of some sectors of the populace, the physical environment and land use. Women in these camps come into contact with many forms of waste such as household wastes, which are a result of their household activities. By enabling women to collect waste and further reprocess it into compost which will be sold to farmers, women leaders will ensure environmental protection while supplying reasonably priced fertilizer in the agricultural sector. The advantages of composting include improving soil fertility and healthy root development in plants. Composting also improves the health, living conditions and physical environment of the surrounding populace, leads to job creation, income generation, social upliftment, as well as a recognition and publicity outside of the community. In effect, environmental mechanisms could be used to attain developmental goals in this camp.

Depending on the success of its implementation, such a project could be replicated in other parts of Jordan in latter phases. This project could therefore contribute to Jordan’s attainment of sustainable development goals, in conformity with the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7, which exhorts countries to implement environmentally sustainable policies and programmes; UN MDG 3 which requires that countries need to promote women equality in their programmes and UN  MDG 1 which requires countries to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Such a problem could also enable the integration of women and refugee issues into environmental issues, an approach which could make the attainment of Jordan’s development objectives easier, rather than treat these issues in isolation.

Such a project would also involve the implementation of a series of measures by the respective stakeholders who collaborate to enforce it. These measures include the following: liaise with the municipalities to clearly define the respective roles of each stakeholder in the process of project enforcement; identify a level, well-drained area where composting will take place;  identify and hire workers and women leaders to implement the project and conduct follow-up; identify the different kinds of waste which are produced in the refugee communities, and put them in different categories; purchase plastic bags, gloves, dust bins, boots, boxes and other relevant equipment for women leaders and workers; design two training courses for women leaders, farmers and a number of officials in these towns, on the types of organic waste which should be used for composting. These include tea bags, banana peels and many forms of kitchen waste, manure from birds, corn cobs, hair, peanut shells and paper.

Further measures are to: enhance the skills of affected parties in the process of composting and the sort of wastes which should be avoided; train these workers on the environmental impacts of mismanagement of hazardous waste, as well as the economic and environmental benefits of sustainable waste management practices; conduct a series of environmental awareness campaigns on preventing the disposal of garbage on streets, littering and also, the incentives which could be granted to best practicing areas; draft and finalise a Guidance Manual and Waste Management Charter; and conduct a survey of the number of existing houses, shops, commercial and industrial areas as well as farms in these towns; Remove accumulated wastes from streets.

Other measures include the following: identify particular areas in these towns from where women leaders will collect garbage from shops and houses and where waste disposal bins will be established; distribute a questionnaire to find out some salient features of waste management in the four towns such as the constraints in waste management; organise group discussions to obtain more views from the community about waste management, with practical suggestions on how this can be improved; distribute plastic bags to houses and shops;  establish an organized and regular system of garbage collection from these sites and disposal to a particular dumping area in the four towns through discussions with local authorities; and arrange with local authorities to provide vehicles for transporting garbage; separate organic waste from inorganic waste, and put together the organic waste for composting in a box, with garden soil at the base, with the relevant temperature and amount of heat supplied; monitor the process of the composting; put the fertilizer in separate paper bags for sale to farmers; clean up the inorganic waste (example, plastic bottles) and recycle for re-sale and re-use; co-operate with local authorities and treat the remaining waste in a landfill, with due regard to sound ecological principles.

The outcomes and expected advantages of such a project are many. These include a rise

in certain positive trends such as trained leaders to raise the level of environmental awareness amongst individuals throughout the communities; derivation of more income and greater levels of job opportunities for women through promoting the recycling of waste for sale as compost; improved partnerships between the community, private sector and municipal authorities for the improvement of environmental concerns; formulation and implementation of Guidelines and a Charter on Waste Management which consists of environmentally rational principles in waste management; strengthened partnerships between the community and the Ministry of Environment, for enforcing laws and policies on waste management, while paying attention to the principles of the Waste Management Charter and Jordan’s Waste Management Policy; availability of reasonably priced fertilizer for purchase and use by farmers in the refugee towns and the Jordan Valley, as well as an established system of recycling waste for re-use.

In view of these, such a project could enable the global community and Jordan could to to resolve pressing problems such as poverty and lack of employment.