BBC: Who cleans up after hurricanes, earthquakes and war?

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The second batch of 500 workers will begin work in June. In light of the incoming rainy season this work has become crucial to the local government and also part of the Early Recovery contingency planning for the next few months. Also part of this project is the unconditional cash transfer that every worker will receive at the end of the working month. Each of the 1,000 beneficiaries will receive a total of NGN 40,000 that will indirectly assist 8,364 people within the communities that we are working in. With a strong emphasis on gender equality the DWR workforce is made up of 60% females and 170 of those are from Female Headed Households.

One beneficiary named Ibrahim Dibal (pictured here) explained that “ This work has allowed me to get back to normal, I am ready to work and the money will help feed my family. Also, I have been able to work alongside people in my community that I never knew were here. Especially those who are IDP’s, we are normally not friends but through working with them I now have many more friends”

In partnership with Danish Demining Group. We have been able trained more than 1024 people in Mine Risk Education (MRE) as well as Occupational Health & Safety, ensuring that all workers on site are trained to a high standard. Alongside the Mine Action Sector, we have also played a crucial role in assisting partners in training in excess of 120 community leader/elders in an intense MRE course so when areas of Borno State become cut off logistically, a focal MRE person will be on the ground to assist farmers when planting crops.

To support the local authorities we are also training more than 50 government staff from the Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of RRR, Health, Agriculture, Works and Water Resources…..resilience in the government sector is a key priority for our project.
With Swiss and UNDP funding, the DWR teams will clean large parts of the town and we will keep you all informed as works progress.

Thanks!
Martin

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The assessment identified 6 areas of intervention to strengthen local authorities’ capacity and provide livelihood support in the Governorates of Aden, Amran, Hajjah, Mukalla, Sana’a, and Sa’adh.

After being shared with all relevant stakeholders at the Yemen WASH and Early Recovery clusters, the report is available to the public through Humanitarian Response website.

Corrigendum: Ramy Salemdeeb contributed to the assessment and not, as indicated, Ramy Saleeb

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The renewed conflict along with the blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition has put sustained pressure on an already strained public service. Uncollected waste has been building up in populated areas, leading to an increase in vector breeding causing serious public health concerns.

Due to the intensity of shelling and street-level fighting, it was impossible for DWR to deploy experts directly to the affected areas. Instead, a purpose-built data collection tool was built by Ben Grundy and deployed onto phones and tablets of UNDP and partner staff already on the ground. The tool enabled Olmo Forni, an experienced disaster waste expert, to analyse the situation accurately and recommend interventions in different areas based on specific needs. Some of these recommendations are:

1. Emergency employment programs within local authorities who have struggled to retain their staff during the crisis;
2. Repair and rehabilitation of damaged waste collection vehicle fleets where these have been stolen or damaged by the warring parties;
3. Dumpsite improvement works where uncontrolled landfill fires have been reported,
4. Healthcare waste management resumption in Sana’a where a treatment facility* is ready to start operations;
5. Recycling reactivation through power generating equipment donation to small and medium waste traders.

DWR continues to support UNDP Yemen in raising the required funds to implement these projects, but remains deeply concerned by the ever increasing case-load of humanitarian needs in the least developed country in the Gulf.

For any more information on DWR’s work in Yemen, you can contact Olmo who is based in  Amman on olmo@disasterwaste.org.

*Sana’a healthcare waste treatment plant construction was funded by OPEC OPEC 959 P and its commissioning by the Saudi Fund for Development and not, as previously stated in the newsletter, by the World Bank

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The event: “Sustainable resource management in post disaster situations – Extending the application of industrial symbiosis” will bring together key stakeholders who work directly on the ground both as enablers and funders in the immediate/emergency response phase, and in the longer term recovery phase of a post disaster/post conflict environment.

The aim of the workshop will identify unmet needs and unexplored opportunities in the field to complement and improve existing good practice. It will potentially identify longer term cost savings (in development aid) and sustainable, durable solutions to support the local economy, inter alia, through infrastructure development utilising industrial symbiosis networks, and an improved healthcare and physical environment. Other outcomes might explore where humanitarian aid resources (such as shelters, food parcels, emergency packages, and medication) could be efficiently reused and, where necessary, managed in a safe and appropriate manner. The event will be held from 1pm to 5pm on the 28th of October 2015 in Birmingham at a venue to be confirmed.

For further information on the event please visit our website to download the flyer and if you are interested to attend please contact Siyka Radilova through Siyka.Radilova@international-synergies.com or 0044 (0) 7 87321 0980.

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We now have a debris and demolition team in Nepal working both in the rural areas affected by the April 2015 earthquake as well as in Kathmandu.

Gabor Prudencio, a Demolition Engineer with Brown and Mason Demolition Contractors in the UK, is in Sindupalchowk inspecting the typical types of damage to people’s homes. He is then going to be developing training material on safe demolition practice using locally available tools and materials. We will be conducting Training of Trainers programmes so these trainers can then spread out into the rural areas and support homeowners in their own demolition works.

Currently people are re-entering dangerous, unstable buildings to retrieve their belongings and start removal of some of the debris – all of which can lead to potential collapse of buildings and further loss of life.

Our Training of Trainers will start next week and we will report back on progress.We will also be distributing posters warning homeowners of key dangers relating to unstable buildings and relevant demolition hazards.

For those organisations that are planning demolition, debris and waste works in Nepal please get in contact with Aiden who can be reached on aiden@disasterwaste.org.

For any other issues please contact Martin Bjerregaard on martin@disasterwaste.org or tel: +44 7969 725 418.

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Disaster Waste Recovery (DWR) is this week deploying Aiden Short to Nepal to support and raise awareness within the affected authorities and communities on simple and safe solid waste actions, debris reuse and recycling. DWR’s rapid response is being supported by CARE International to whom we are grateful. More information on CARE’s response can be found here www.careinternational.org.uk.

Providing early support to the local authorities and communities affected by the earthquake ensures that public health is not at risk from the large amounts of solid waste that follow the earthquake; the maximum amount of debris can be recycled into the ensuing reconstruction works; and authorities burdened by the scale of the disasters are supported in providing appropriate waste and debris services to their communities.

Aiden Short, who is an experienced waste and debris specialist, will arrive in Nepal Thursday 30th April to make contact with and support the Nepalese authorities, local communities, UN agencies as well as local and international NGOs. He will be supported from the DWR home office by our colleagues throughout his stay. Next week we plan for our colleague Olmo Forni to join Aiden and support further on solid waste management.

If you want to follow how things develop we will be sending out regular newsletters and messages

For those organisations that are planning waste or debris works in Nepal please get in contact with Aiden who can be reached on aiden@disasterwaste.org.

For any other issues please contact Martin Bjerregaard on martin@disasterwaste.org or tel: +44 7969 725 418. If you are interested in supporting on solid waste, demolition and debris management please contact Martin.

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Check out our new interactive map on the Disaster Waste Recovery (DWR) website that shows the different types of projects that we have been involved in over the last many years.

You can navigate the interactive map, which shows projects linked to conflict, earthquakes, flooding, tsunamis and hurricanes, as well as training and DRR activities. Each project is colour-coded and visitors can hover over each icon to find out more about the work that DWR did in the region.

Don’t hesitate to contact us for more details on a specific project or support on any humanitarian waste, debris or environmental programme.

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