Good practices under debate

The thematic network of cities on solid waste management, which counts twelve Moroccan cities among its members, met in Fez on 12 and 13 July. Launched on 8 May 2012 in Rabat, this network falls under the German "CoMun" cooperation programme intended for cities and municipalities in the Maghreb, to help them share their know-how in the field of urban development. The thematic network of cities on solid waste management aims to strengthen the capacities of city actors to better manage the field of waste management and offer improved services to citizens. "Each city is endowed with a certain number of experiences, but also many challenges in terms of solid waste management. The network aims to consolidate the know-how of cities in general, and especially of elected officials and technical staff, in the field of urban solid waste management, through a series of meetings based on the principle of rotation between cities. During these meetings, each city presents its good practices in the field of solid waste management and shares them with other cities," specifies Fabio Germano, coordinator of the "CoMun" programme in Morocco. The Fez meeting was thus an opportunity to discuss the city's good practices in terms of solid waste management. The first day was reserved for the environmental model of the controlled landfill (DC) of Fez, based on the energy recovery system. To meet environmental compliance and clean production standards, the controlled landfill of Fez, which began operations in 2004, added the methanisation process to solid waste treatment, which allows, through the biological degradation of organic matter, to recover the biogas resulting from this process.

The CoMun programme (cooperation of cities and municipalities of the Maghreb), carried out by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ, German Technical Cooperation) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), aims to promote the sharing of know-how between Maghreb countries for urban development. It encourages the creation of a dialogue network between the cities of the central Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) on key issues of urban development with a view to promoting a broad exchange of experiences. In this sense, CoMun aims to increase both the impact of innovative solutions that already exist in the region, and the promotion of existing capacities and the effective handling of emerging problems, in the search for better urban management.

The overall objective of CoMun is to encourage, within the framework of national and regional development dialogues, the forces of renewal of cities.

-* The thematic network of cities on solid waste management falls under the German "CoMun" cooperation programme intended for cities and municipalities in the Maghreb.

-* This programme aims to share know-how between Maghreb countries for urban development.

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Provider / Source : Afaf Razouki, Le Matin