National Waste Management and Pollution Control Strategy and Implementation Plan 2016 – 2020.

The National Waste Management and Pollution Control Strategy and Implementation Plan 2016 – 2020 is a five year cross-sectoral national strategy whose overall goal is an environmentally sustainable Vanuatu, in which all types of wastes generated are reduced, collected, reused, recycled and treated by environmentally sound technologies suited to local conditions, and waste going to landfill is minimized to the lowest possible amount. The strategy covers all sources of solid wastes (residential, commercial, institutional, industrial, disaster waste, medical waste, e-waste and scrap metal, and quarantine wastes), hazardous wastes (such as used-oil) and liquid wastes (mainly pollutants discharge to water sources – waste water discharges) and gaseous wastes (mainly emissions from vehicles and other air pollution sources of emission).
A clean healthy environment leads to productive sustainable development. Therefore the vision of this policy is “towards clean sustainable environment. Its goals are: 1. To support waste management and pollution control activities with practical, effective, enforceable legislation; 2. To make waste management systems and programmes financially self-sustaining (establish incentive schemes that implement the polluter pays principle by encouraging cleaner production and waste recovery); 3. To develop skilled and trained people in Vanuatu to effectively manage waste management and pollution control systems; 4. To reduce the amount of waste generated at source and land filled; 5. To implement effective waste collection and disposal throughout Vanuatu and limit the impact of waste and pollution on urban areas and ecosystems; 6. To improve waste and pollution control management, infrastructure and support sustainable operation and maintenance; 7. To better coordinate national waste management activities and ensure that the National Waste Management and Pollution Control Strategy is implemented and periodically reviewed and updated to achieve the stated goal and purpose; 8. To increase public awareness on their waste management responsibilities; and 9. To introduce and enhance community participation on waste management.
To this end, the interventions will be focused on the following areas: a) Policy and legislation,including the development of guidelines for Waste Management Operations and standards for Pollution Control Permits, sanitation systems and the types of sanitary devices and standards for sanitary devices for use in Vanuatu. b) Sustainable financing c) Capacity development d) Waste minimization e) Integrated waste management f) National coordination g) Public awareness
Regarding governance, the implementation of this Strategy will be coordinated by the Department of Environmental Protection and Conservation. It should be noted, however, that the Strategy calls for the establishment of a National Waste Coordinating Committee, which once established may be tasked with monitoring the implementation of the NWMPCS. In February 2016, a coordinating committee was established to work collaboratively with DEPC in strengthening coordination down to local government authorities (Provinces and Municipalities) as well as communities and private sectors. The coordination committee is formulated with in-line relevant agencies and stakeholders as listed in Appendix 1. Monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the strategy will be undertaken by the DEPC using the format proposed in Appendix 2 of the policy, and updated as necessary.