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International Waters Project

Kiribati Champions Waste Reduction in the Pacific

2/1/2005

By Asterio Takesy

2005 is the “Pacific Year of Action Against Waste” and Kiribati has recently been showing the rest of the region how it can turn its “waste” problem into a valuable resource.

For years it appeared that most of the 40,000 people living on South Tarawa would simply have to accept sharing their streets and beaches with the 6,500 tonnes of solid waste they generated every year. However, as growing volumes of solid and “liquid” waste started to put Tarawa’s fragile water lens and lagoon under increasing pressure, the subsequent health risks simply became too difficult to ignore. Now the country is fighting back with a number of creative initiatives designed to encourage communities to turn their waste into a useful resource.

The non-government organisation Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific Kiribati has set up the “Kaoki Mange!” (‘Return the Waste!’) Project, which has been the key driver in encouraging the diversion of waste away from the country’s new landfills and towards beneficial re-use through recycling and composting.

Research found that nearly 80% of the household waste collected for disposal is valuable plant matter that could be turned into compost and used to enrich the poor Kiribati soil. The Government did not want to fill its new and expensive landfills with organic material, particularly when places like the Taiwan Government’s new demonstration gardens were crying out for more compost.

Late last year Parliament introduced a buy-back scheme for imported cans (and some bottles) with a 5-cent deposit paid at import. Consumers can now return five cans or bottles at a time for 20 cents with the remaining 4 cents being set aside to help finance the new recycling operation established by Kaoki Mange! This new recycling operation, developed initially with assistance from UNDP and several other donors, will eventually be fully self-financed from money raised from container deposits and the sale of recycled materials.

The Kiribati Ministry of Environment and the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) have been helping to support the work of Kaoki Mange! and the Tarawa Urban Council through a pilot project in the community of Bikenibeu West. The objective of the Kiribati International Waters Project (IWP) is to work together with this community to help identify effective, low-cost, solutions that can be used to help the Government improve waste management throughout the rest of the country.

Ritia Bakineti, the National Coordinator of the Kiribati IWP, says the project was actively looking for ways to support existing waste reduction initiatives and promote some practical solutions in the community. The result was the creation of a successful household waste reduction competition appropriately titled “Akeatemange” or “Zero Waste”.

“The competition ran from October-December 2004 and we felt it was really an ideal time to support the establishment of the new Kaoki Mange! Resource Recovery Facility in Betio and the Tarawa Urban Council’s new landfill at Nanikai,” she says.

“The main message we wanted to communicate during the competition was that waste is a valuable resource. The competition complements these existing projects by encouraging the community to sort their waste and reduce the amount of waste that needs to be collected so we can extend the lifespan of our new landfills,” she says.

Ritia says the competition was designed to encourage residents to reduce littering, compost plant material in “Banana Circles” and separate their remaining “waste” into the new biodegradable “Green Bags” for collection and disposal by the Council’s garbage collectors.

“A Banana Circle is a simple composting method where several banana trees are planted around a hole lined with cardboard and any plant waste is simply feed into the hole. Sometimes grey water from the kitchen and laundry is piped in to feed the banana roots. This helps to keep organics out of the landfill and helps to protect the groundwater lens. Of course the main incentive for most people is that they get to grow a healthy supply of bananas for their families,” she says.

The family of Ruka and Tekori Tekitanga were one of the main competition winners and Mrs Tekitanga says their new Banana Circle has helped them to realise the value of their organic waste. The rich and fertile compost from their banana circle has been used to enhance their abundant garden that now includes flourishing cucumbers and cabbages.

“Our youngest daughter, aged eight, sweeps the house every morning and puts the plant waste in our Banana Circle. The waste that does not rot is placed in the Green Bags”. She adds that the family’s wastewater from the laundry and dishwashing that contains detergents is also collected used in the Banana Circle. “In this way hardly any pollution will reach the groundwater, thus safeguarding the goodness of water,” she says.

Mrs Tekitanga is now ready to harvest one patch of cabbages, which she will sell at the local market. She says she will definitely continue with her home gardening after the competition now that she has an alternative source of income. Her husband has prepared new seedlings to replace those harvested and she says they will always have a regular supply of nutrients for their soil from the “waste” they generate every day.

Ritia Bakineti says the competition has been very successful in helping the community to understand the personal benefits of sorting their waste. “The competition has resulted in a significant increase in the use Banana Circles and there has been a real improvement in terms of the general tidiness of the community. We now need to find a way to encourage householders to pay for the Green Bags to help cover the ongoing cost of collecting and disposing their waste,” she says.

Ruka and Tekori Tekitanga both say they are now very conscious of protecting the water lens from which they and hundreds of other residents in their community draw out water for their daily needs. Mrs Tekitanga says she would like to be an environmental champion for the rest of her community. “I want my fellow residents to see that through these practices and simple methods of farming they can contribute enormously to maintaining our scarce water resources for our future generations,” she says.

Unfortunately Ritia says that none of the 11 wells recently tested in Bikenibeu West are currently fit for drinking or for domestic use. “Our surveys have shown that more than 50% of households are still using well water for laundry and washing dishes and 14% are even using this well water for drinking,” she says.

Ritia believes the high level of faecal coliform in the groundwater is probably the result of the poor management of human and pig waste. “About 70% of households in Bikenibeu West have access some kind of toilet but most toilets are water-sealed latrines and many of these are likely to be leaking into the water lens,” she says.

“The Akeatemange Competition has been a really useful and important first step in helping people to understand how we can all benefit if we starting viewing our waste as a valuable resource. The next stage for us is to try and find more people like the Tekitanga Family who can help to champion the adoption of safer systems to manage the waste from humans and pigs,” she says.

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

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