Vänersborg and Chobe, Botswana

Time period: 2018-

Project: ECOWAMA36

Continuing the partnership between Chobe District and Vänersborg Municipality, this is a knowledge and experience exchange project within solid waste management. The overall objective is to achieve improved community resilience and a more sustainable environment in Chobe District and in Vänersborg.

The project objective: Enhanced conditions for a more efficient and sustainable solid waste management system in Chobe district/Botswana and in the municipality of Vänersborg/Sweden.

The intermediate objectives are following the whole solid waste management process to ensure sustainable results.
Hence, the short-term objectives to reach the project objectives are focusing on:

  • planning
  • awareness
  • sorting/source separation
  • collection of waste
  • landfill
  • recycling

The project will provide the partners with strengthened capacity regarding efficient and sustainable solid waste management, the whole chain/process, transparent residents dialogue and community empowerment, a fruitful public-private collaboration, and more, thus strengthening the organisations’ capacities to deal with complex and important waste management challenges in the future. The residents’ awareness of how their behaviours affect local environmental health is a prerequisite to succeed with sustainable waste management.

Central for the project implementation are the Chobe District waste management department and Vänersborg’s public waste management department as well as staff at the landfill, potential recycling companies and residents in a pilot district in Kasane, the capital in Chobe District. The long-term ambition is that source separation of recyclables will be expanded to the rest of Chobe District, forming a foundation for a sustainable resource management where waste is treated as a valuable resource.