African Clean Cities Platform (ACCP) Webinar Series - Webinar #2 COVID Waste What additional challenge was imposed in African cities?

 About the Webinar Series 

Africa’s urbanization rate is 3.5%, the highest in the world. Due to the rapid urbanization in recent years, municipal solid waste management has become a big challenge for many cities, as lower-income cities in Africa are expected to double their municipal solid waste generation within the next 15-20 years. 

To address this ever-increasing waste issue, the African Clean Cities Platform (ACCP) was established in 2017 in Maputo, Mozambique, with 24 African countries representative together with the Ministry of Environment of Japan (MoEJ), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the City of Yokohama, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) with the aim of sharing knowledge and good practice and promoting investment in waste management to realize clean cities in Africa by 2030.

The ACCP webinar series aims to share knowledge and experiences to tackle common challenges in solid waste management observed in the continent so that the member countries and cities can interactively learn solutions for improved solid waste management and shift towards the urban circular economy. The webinar series consists of below three webinars.
 

1. How to Improve Waste Collection Rate in African Cities? (31 January) 
2. Covid Waste Management in Africa (24 February) 
3. How to Turn Open Dumpsites to Controlled Waste Disposal Facility in African Cities? (24 March) 

African Clean Cities Platform (ACCP) Webinar Series - Webinar #2 COVID Waste What additional challenge was imposed in African cities?:

Date: 24, Feb 2022

Time: 11:00 – 12:30 (WAT) / 14:00 – 15:30 (EAT) / 20:00 – 21:30 (JST)

Register from here: 

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eYLpSgOBROWcKJAE3TMNwQ

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed additional burden to African cities who are already overwhelmed by the rapidly increasing amount of solid waste to manage.  The pandemic has resulted in increased amount of mixed waste, including infectious waste and plastic waste. The second webinar addresses the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare waste and introduces relevant technologies to deal with such waste through UNEP’s Compendium of Technologies for Treatment/Destruction of Healthcare Waste.

Speakers:

Ms. Gladys Ngeno

Gladys is a Public Health Specialist based in Kenya. She's a specialist in HCWM and has been critical in steering HCWM in Kenya. She's consulted for UNDP on Health Care Waste Management on various assignments in Kenya, a regional UNDP Master trainer on Health Care Waste Management. She has been steering the advancement of Health care Waste management Kenya HCWM Policies and Guidelines.

Gladys was a Technical Advisor for a  PEPFAR funded strengthening healthcare waste management systems at PATH. She led the introduction and piloting of non-burn technologies for Kenya's medical waste treatment and disposal. The technologies include autoclaving, microwaving, and shredding to minimize the release of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP's) of burning to the Environment. In addition, she was the technical lead on the development of Kenya's 5 Year Strategic Plan on Health Care Waste Management (HCWM)  2016 - 2021 and National HCWM Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's). She's an active member of National Technical Working Groups on Health Care Waste Management, Climate Change, and Health; through these networks, she's contributed to several Kenya policies enhancing Climate Change health resilience in Kenya.

Dr. Jorge Emmanuel

Dr. Jorge Emmanuel is adjunct professor in the Institute of Environmental and Marine Sciences and College of Engineering at Silliman University, Philippines. He was Chief Technical Advisor for the United Nations Development Program and consultant to the World Health Organization, government ministries, and non-governmental organizations in over 40 countries. He is the author of UNEP’s Compendium of Technologies for the Treatment/Destruction of Healthcare Waste, and co-author/editor of WHO’s Safe Management of wastes from health-care activities. Trained in chemistry, chemical engineering, environmental management, public health, and infection control, his research interests include plastic pollution, COVID-19 transmission modes, and healthcare waste management.