Egyptian governor: Informal sector must be involved in waste collection

The integration of the informal sector into the waste management system is important.

Report informs that Amr Lashine, Governor of Aswan, Egypt, said this at the event "Closing the Loop: The Economic Impact of Waste Management" held as part of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13).

Lashine highlighted the work being carried out in waste management in both the formal and informal sectors.

"Aswan Governorate is located in the southern part of Egypt, and we connect the country to Africa. Because of residential areas, hotels, cruises and agricultural activities along the Nile River, we have different areas of use. For this reason, I have been working for years on waste management in both the formal and informal sectors. We started using UN-Habitat's Waste Wise Cities tool. Through this tool, we understood the amount of waste, its different segments, where it comes from and the scale not of the problem, but of the existing opportunity. There are different types of waste in the region, coming from hotels, Nile cruises, informal settlements, agriculture and hospitals," he said.

According to him, informal waste collectors play a crucial role in the system.

"The people who can disrupt the system are informal waste collectors, so it was very important to contact them and agree that they would be integrated into the system. Although they did not believe us at first, we told them that they would not be held responsible until they understood the benefits of being part of the system. These people are both a vulnerable group and, if they are not involved in the process, the strongest circle capable of finding certain gaps and making the system ineffective," he said.