Final Report: Clean Akhurian

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CLEAN AKHURYAN: Contributing to the Clean Environment Through Improved Solid Waste Management Services Narrative Report Submitted by: Urban Foundation for Sustainable Development Funded by: Norwegian Embassy in Moscow Reporting period: August 1, 2011- August 1, 2012 The aim of the implemented project was to improve efficiency of solid waste management (SWM) in Akhuryan rural community (Shirak Marz) through technical assistance in service delivery, practicing of separation of plastic from household waste, and intensive public education. The project intended to have a sustainable impact on the environment and bring about behavioral changes among the population.

Activity 0.1: Preparatory phase The project started in August, 2011. During the first visit to Akhurian, the municipality was introduced with the project scope, planned activities and expected outcomes. A Memorandum of understanding was signed between UFSD and Akhurian municipality (Annex 1). Meantime, agreements were signed with Meghvik NGO to carry out outreach activities in Akhuryan and Tsayg TV station to cover the project implementation course.

Activity 1: Baseline survey on current situation of service delivery A baseline survey was conducted to examine plastic recycling practices in the village of Akhuryan to further set up Program strategy indicators and develop a public awareness campaign encouraging the local community to reduce, reuse, and recycle their waste. In November, 2011 200 interviews were conducted among adult residents of Akhuryan to assess their knowledge, attitude and practices regarding waste management issues in general and their local experiences in particular. The development of the questionnaire, training of interviewers and reporting was done by Hasmik Tamamyan, UFSD social scientist. The data collection process was administered and supervised by the representatives of the Gyumribased Meghvik NGO. Households to be interviewed have been selected at random to ensure representative sampling and further generalization of the findings. Specially-trained interviewers conducted face-to-face interviews with a standardized questionnaire, which covered a wide range of waste management related issues and demographic information.

The recommendations deriving from the survey are: 1. Special attention and efforts are required to improve waste collection and removal services and waste management facilities in the village of Akhuryan. Sufficient number of bins for rubbish collection should be made available in places of easy access.

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2. A variety of awareness activities - targeting different age, gender and interest groups within the village - should be carried out to encourage accurate and responsible disposal of waste by providing them with necessary information.

3. Residents of the village are keen to pay for better waste management services and should be encouraged to sign contracts with waste collection services. This survey gives some ideas about the possible service charges.

Activity 2: Drafting a participatory Solid Waste Management Plan In Akhuryan, a working group was formed made up of 7 persons whose task was to elaborate SWM strategic plan, and , in general to support the project implementation ( Annex 2). Among work group members are: 1. representatives of service delivering company, 2. a community council member, 3. land use and environmental protection specialist, 4. an epidemiologist of the regional sanitary- epidemiological inspection, 5. aid to the community head, 6. a municipal employee 7. mayor of Akhurian (head of the working group).

UFSD specialists (Armen Varosyan and Mayis Vanoyan) initiated a strategic planning process at the municipality with active participation of the Working Group to identify and prioritize issues relating to the waste management.

The planning process included data collection, setting targets (goals and objectives) SWOT analysis, steps to be undertaken to meet the goals, stakeholder base, etc. Afterwards, the stakeholders were introduced to the best waste management practices.

The draft strategic plan covers a period of 15 years. It includes provisions for introduction of waste separation and recycling. UFSD specialists were available for the Working Group members during the entire process and provided guidance during all stages. 4 planning meetings were held before the final draft was elaborated.

The final draft of the plan was introduced to the community council and was approved at the Akhuryan Community Council meeting on 15 of June, 2012. The decision was signed on June 18, 2012 (Annex 3).

Activity 3: Assisting in calculation of unit cost of SWM Service UFSD specialists elaborated a computer based tool for facilitating calculation of waste collection service tariffs. The tool provides a set of parameters based on which the process of tariff can be calculated so that the tariff covers the cost of the service. Among parameters are: the frequency of waste removal, distance covered by the truck, personnel involved, cost of fuel, etc.

The tool was introduced to the Working group and municipality staff, relevant data was made available by the municipality to be inserted in the tool to make it operational. UFSD lawyer

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supported the municipality in developing local ordinances as well as presented sample contracts for physical and legal entities on waste management service delivery. The community council has approved the ordinances. Based on the elaborated documents, the municipality developed and the community council approved the rules for garbage collection.

Activity 4: Installing billing /phone survey software.

UFSD introduced a billing and collection software at Akhurian municipality. For that a specialist (Maxim Meliksetyan) was contracted who is the developer of the billing software which is installed in about 40 communities throughout Armenia. The software has considerably facilitated the process of bill collection. The specialist conducted training for relevant municipality employees and the service provider who are responsible for billing. The municipality started tracking the revenue collection since 2012.

It was intended in the project documents to install phone survey software and provide training to the staff to utilize it. An integral part of the software is the database of residents who own ground line telephone so that the software is able to make random selection of residents.

However the telephone company, who owns the database refused to share it with the municipality on the grounds that the information is now considered confidential (in former cases the telephone company had provided databases of other community customers). The aim of installing the software was to conduct follow up survey towards the end of the project.

As this instrument was not possible to implement, the follow up was done as a normal survey.

Meghvik NGO was tasked to conduct the survey.

Activity 5: Installing special bins for plastic The project ordered 18 bins for plastic bottles, while the municipality contributed 8 bins. Later in June 2012, UFSD applied to the UNDP/USAID Global Compact project requesting to provide additional bins for plastic. After studying the implementation of the project in Akhurian, 10 additional bins for plastic were delivered and installed next to the other bins in Akhuryan.

Activity 6: Workshop and study tour in Alaverdi This activity was planned to showcase a similar project successfully competed some 18 months before in Alaverdi (Lori Marz). That project was the first attempt in Armenia to promote separation of plastic from household solid waste and created the entire chain connecting the source and the recycler. The work group from Akhuryan and Meghvic NGO visited Alaverdi,

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toured the town, talked to the residents. Afterwards, in a workshop Alaverdi stakeholders shared their experience about the project, bottlenecks and lessons learned. Tsayg TV crew shot footage on the event.

Activity 7: Public information activities The project attached considerable attention to pubic information activities and visibility, as an important lesson learnt from previous similar activities was that the success of the action is directly comparable with the amount of efforts in public education. For that a strategy was elaborated that included several methods: a) 5 large format (1m2) signs were prepared and installed in public places notifying that green bins are installed in Akhurian for plastic bottles. b) Small signs were stuck on each of the bins alerting people that the bins are only for PET bottles c) A2 format posters were posted in public places informing people why the bins are installed d) 500 copies of brochures for children were printed explaining them about why they should separate plastic e) A TV PSA was was produced and aired by Tsayg TV f) Project activities were regularly covered by Tsayg TV, including a 12 minute video film devoted to the danger of non separated plastic and how the issue was addressed with the grant from the Norwegian embassy.

Some of the video materials produced by Tsayg TV can be found here: http://urbanfoundation.am/?mod=article&action=showPubVideo&articleNId=26&mPage=publications http://tsayg.am/hasarakutyun/738-gsnsl-pp-b-sl-n-lpl-l-s-i-e-blsl.html, http://tsayg.am/hasarakutyun/300-gsnsl-u-sl-u-pp-bnsl-en-eesl.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VELqdIflUAE&feature=youtu.be

Activity 8: A seminar with stakeholders with adverse effects of solid waste The seminar was dedicated to discussing current waste management practices, the risks that they contain, the best international practices and what the ways to promote culture of waste separation and recycling are. Participants were introduced to previous similar projects implemented by UFSD. During the seminar, public information materials were presented and discussed.

Activity 9: Community outreach

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At the beginning of the project local NGO Meghvik was contracted to plan and organize outreach activities in Akhuryan. The plan Meghvik NGO developed included intensive work with children. Particularly, in the eve of New Year and Christmas outdoor environmental lessons were organized as well as children were taught to make different articles and toys for the New Year tree from plastic bottles. Similar activities were organized also in spring. In April several cleaning activities were organized with children in different locations of the community – school yards, park and central square. These activities encouraged teachers of the schools, municipality workers and nearby businesses to join children during cleanups. A painting contest was organized for art school which was provided with paper and paints and pencils.

In June Meghvik NGO organized a ‘Clean Akhurian Day’ in which all schools of Akhurian were involved. About 300 schoolchildren in white and green T-shirts marched in the streets carrying posters and slogans urging residents to keep their community clean. On the same day an exhibit of paintings was organized in the square.

Meghvik NGO was involved in the baseline survey: Guided by the social scientist, Meghvik involved interviewers who after passing training were able to conduct survey interviews and fill in questionnaires, after which the questionnaires were incorporated into the database.

Activity 10: Focus Groups and follow up community survey The aim of the focus groups was to assess the perceptions of the group about issues related to the project through discussions and exchange of opinions. Groups consisted of 6-10 persons of different age, education, sex, social/housing conditions. Moderator ensured that equal opportunity was given to every participant to express their thoughts and minimize negative group dynamics. The following topics were discussed during the FG: a. Have you seen the new bins? b. Were you clear what were those bins for? c. Are you separating plastic? d. Do you think it is good to separate? Why? e. What in your opinion are the benefits of separation? f. What would you advise the municipality in order to improve waste management?

The results of the FGs showed that there is positive perception and attitude towards the issue of improved waste management and residents are willing to contribute to that and not just blame the authorities for their drawbacks. The follow up community survey conducted among randomly selected 150 respondents reinforced this opinion. Thus, respondents answered gave the following evaluation to the level of waste management in their neighborhood: Scale: 1 (worst) -10 (best) 11% gave “10” scores 56% gave “9” scores 32% gave “8” scores ----0.2% gave “1” score To the question if there are any green bins near their houses/apartments, 94% answered “YES”, 91% stated that they know what for those bins are.

The most frequent answers to the question ”How did you learn that the green bins are for separating plastic bottles?” were: 1) from TV; 2) from school; 3) from signs; 4) from municipality.

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The survey identified that some pitfall in waste management as well. 50% refused to answer if they had a contract with the service provider, though 88% noted that they pay for that service.

Another finding is that respondents note that the dumping places (both for garbage and plastic) are far from each other and they would like to have then more for their ease.

Activity 11: A wrap up workshop, lessons learnt

On July 24, a workshop was organized in Gyumri with participation of stakeholders of the project and wider community to discuss the outcomes of the project and lessons learnt.

Representatives of Aparan and Yeghegnadzor municipalities were also present to learn about the project and possibly implement similar activity in their community.

During the workshop an overview of the project activities was presented to the participants as well as feedback from stakeholders was sought. The results of the follow up survey was presented and discussed. The mayor of Akhurian, Mr.Igityan, presented the improvements that the project brought about in their community in terms of waste management. Besides, he mentioned about improved consciousness of population regarding dealing and separation of plastic waste. Guests from other communities asked many questions about technicalities and bottlenecks of the project. It was agreed that more experienced partners would provide assistance to those who would start similar projects in other places.

Prepared by Armine Tukhikyan, Project manager