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International Waters Project

The Real Cost of Fiji’s Growing Mountain of Rubbish

8/1/2005

By Tamani Nair

In early July a fire at Lami Rubbish blanketed Suva with choking smoke and led to warnings from environment and health authorities about the serious health risks from the tons of poisonous chemicals being released into the environment. Super-toxic chemicals such as chlorinated dioxins and furans are formed as a by-product of burning organic chemicals and plastics that contain chlorine. Should dioxin reach as little as a few parts per trillion in human body fat it can lead to a wide range of effects including cancer, nervous system disorders and birth defects. In this special feature article Tamani Nair asks what the Government is doing to reduce the growing burden of poor waste management in Fiji.

Fiji has a population of just over 800,000 but uses a minimum of 66-million plastic bags annually. On average that’s 83 plastic bags per person per year

This statistic should not be a surprise to anyone living in Fiji. You just need to look at the roadside or the coastline to see where these millions of “environmentally unfriendly” plastic bags end up. And that’s just plastic bags.

There is no doubt that Fiji has a waste management problem. Whether it be solid or liquid waste, this island nation has a long way to go in changing its culture of not knowing, or rather not caring, about how its waste is being managed.

In Fiji, like most other Pacific Island countries, people feel that the proper disposal and management of waste is someone else’s problem. Even responsible community members who pay for the removal of their garbage, appear not to care where it goes and what is done to it – just as long as it is taken away.

For those people living in rural areas, without access to rubbish collection services, their daily refuse usually ends up in the nearest river or gully.

The Fiji International Waters Project (IWP) is working with the villages of Vunisinu and Nalase to find cost-effective ways to help Fiji’s rural communities to minimise the harmful effects of waste on their environment and their health. Located one hour north of Suva, in the province of Rewa, Vunisinu and Nalase have a combined population of just over 200 people.

The Fiji IWP is co-managed by Fiji’s Environment Department and the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). 2005 is the “Year of Action Against Waste” in the Pacific Region and SPREP is currently finalising a Regional Solid Waste Management Strategy, considered something of a blueprint for improving the management of solid waste throughout the region.

The development of this regional strategy has been directly assisted by lessons from the Fiji IWP as one of 8 IWP community-based waste management projects from throughout the region.

In order to change people’s attitude and behaviour towards waste the IWP believes that people need to understand and address the “root causes” of the problem rather than just focusing on the symptoms. For example, instead of doing beach “clean ups” the IWP tries to help people think about how this rubbish got there in the first place.

The Fiji IWP is intended to promote increased community involvement and responsibility for community-based waste reduction. If successful the project could be used as a model help show other coastal communities how they can improve the way they manage their waste.

Sandeep K Singh, National Coordinator of the IWP, says Fiji needs to work towards an integrated waste management system that minimises the impact of waste on the environment and public health. She says that Government and the business sector need to find ways to make it easier for the public to recycle their plastics and compost their green waste.

“Although there are a number of recycling companies that export waste out of Fiji for processing, such as Waste recyclers, there is no overall recycling system. Presently the collection of plastic materials like bottles has been centred around the urban areas of Fiji,” she says.

Ms Singh adds that overlaps in existing environmental legislation has led to conflicting roles and responsibilities which have resulted in the public receiving mixed messages about proper waste management.

The true costs of poor waste management practices will soon become clearer when the IWP completes its next major project – an economic “valuation” of Fiji’s waste.

This project is being headed by Dr Padma Lal, the Sustainable Development Adviser at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

Dr Lal believes that giving a dollar value to the problem of waste management in Fiji will be more effective in terms of advocating for real change on this serious issue.

“People seem to be able to understand the magnitude of a problem when you assign a dollar value as compared to just giving them scientific information, ” she says.

Dr Lal said that one way to tackle the problem of waste is to introduce management based on incentives instead of relying on penalties that are very difficult to police and enforce.

“In the past people have said that we are going to prohibit you from dumping rubbish on the coastline, but we know that approach has had very little impact,” she says.

Dr Lal says some Pacific Island countries such as Kiribati have introduced a small levy on all plastic bottles and cans to help provide a real incentive for people to return it and get the money back.

“The use of these “economic instruments” can minimise the Government’s involvement. Once the regulation is in place it puts the onus back on the people by providing an incentive to change because it affects their pockets,” she says.

However Dr Lal emphasises the need to have a multi-pronged approach to the issue of waste management.

“We need to educate people and you also need to use economic instruments to get them to respond. In extreme cases, when education and incentives don’t work, you still have to have your penalties and the threat of enforcement,” she says.

The Director of the Department of Environment (DOE), Mr Epeli Nasome, emphasises the devastating effect that poor waste management could have on Fiji’s billion-dollar tourism industry.

“Often the first impression a tourist gets when he or she enters the country is rubbish by the roadside,” he says.

Mr Nasome admitted the poor implementation of the Anti-Litter decree was one of reasons why the campaign failed. He says the unsuccessful National Anti-Litter decree has been reviewed and it should be before Parliament soon.

He says it has taken many years for his department to find an effective way to approach the issue of waste management.

“In the beginning we always tried to control waste after it had been produced but that is a very expensive way to deal with the problem. Our approach is now to try and minimise waste at the source,” he says.

Mr Nasome says Fiji now has the legislation in place to strengthen the country’s approach to waste management. Parliament recently passed the Environment Management Act (EMA) 2005 which has relevant sections to deal with waste management and pollution control.

“The responsibility is now on us (DOE) to put the required resources in place so that we able to enforce whatever requirement there is in the Act,” he says.

He says he Department will require $500,000 to fully enact the Environment Management Act and it will have to be phased in slowly with the target being 2008 for the Act to be enforced in its entirety.

Although Fiji has a real problem with plastic bags Mr Nasome says there will be no move anytime soon to follow Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea’s ban on plastic bags.
“Banning plastics is really the last resort. Right now we are looking at the idea that, if consumers want to use plastic bags, they have to pay for it.”

The Government is taking positive steps to address the waste problem but Mr Nasome says the management of waste is the responsibility of every citizen. And this battle will only grow more difficult as more and more people drift into the Fiji’s urban areas.

According to the Ministry of Local Government’s Squatter Resettlement Unit more than 50,000 people already live in squatter settlements in Suva alone.

The infamous Lami Rubbish Dump located just outside of Suva and probably the largest in the South Pacific is one of the eyesores that residents and visitors have to bear with before entering Suva.

The dump serves the towns of Nausori, Nasinu and Lami, and the City of Suva.

The dumpsite will be closed soon when operations at the new site at Naboro, which is 13 kilometres outside of Suva, opens for operations.

The operation has been delayed due to the delay in the formation of a company to manage and operate it. The Naboro Landfill will be managed by New Zealand company HG Leach Company Limited after a joint venture between Waste Management New Zealand and local municipal councils had failed.

The selection process was one of the reasons of the delay in the start of operations at Naboro which is scheduled to begin in September.

The closing of the rubbish dump will be the end of an era for Suva.

The Department of Environment is still looking at what would be done to the Lami Dump.

“The initial programme was to just put a cover over the dumpsite so that no rain water would get into the dump which will allow what is there to settle,” says Mr Nasome.

“This will also allow for the draining of the methane gas produced,” he says.

The process according to Mr Nasome will take close to 20-years.

Mr Nasome says that the problem is the huge amount of different kinds of plastics that are in the dump with some that would take up to 500 years to decompose.

The other option that they are looking at is bringing a machine, which would churn and chew up the rubbish in turn drastically hastening the process of decomposition and settling.

Mr Nasome says the rehabilitation process will cost around $1-million. He says this is part of the $10-million provided by the European Union, which was specifically allocated for the rehabilitation of the Lami Dump.

Meanwhile for the western division of Viti Levu with the towns of Sigatoka, Nadi, Ba, Rakiraki, Tavua, and the City of Lautoka, a regional landfill is currently being explored.

He says the outlying small islands of Fiji have their own rubbish dumpsites.


“Waste generated in villages are not obligated for collection by the Rural Local Authorities. According to the Public Health Act it is outside their areas of responsibility,” Mr Nasome says.

“However, arrangements have been made for waste collection services to be undertaken from some villages with financial arrangements on the part of the villagers.”

So is the case at Vunisinu and Nalase where each household now pays a levy of FJD$5 a month to get their non-recyclable rubbish collected by a waste recycling company.

Every Fijian must do what they can to reduce their waste in a responsible and environmentally friendly way. But, as a country, we also need to ensure that we create a system that makes it easy for everyone to take action against waste.

ENDS

Contact Name	Steve Menzies
e-mail	stevem@sprep.org
Phone	(685) 21929
Fax	(685) 20231

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