Health and environment: waste management in North east Syria

One of the lessons we have learned during the Covid-19 pandemic is that human health is directly affected by numerous factors, and that to sustain our health we must establish a different relationship with our environment.

This has always been a key consideration in Un Ponte Per’s work in Northeast Syria, where we have been implementing healthcare initiatives since 2019 with our partner, the Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC) – one of our shared priorities was always the environment and sustainable waste management, in keeping with the requests made by the local population and by our Red Crescent partners: until very recently there were no facilities in Northeast Syria for healthcare waste disposal, which requires specific procedures and equipment. So when we began supporting local clinics, this issue had to be addressed, as requested by the Red Crescent, who were planning to set up an efficient waste disposal system.

In December 2018 we began searching for Syrian and international men and women with relevant expertise to help us design a project with the technical support of men and women from the Metropolitan Area of Barcellona, which was the first project donor, joined in 2020/2021 by the Autonomous Province of Bolzano.

We decided to facilitate a direct relationship between Italian and Syrian small businesses, to promote the exchange of best practice, which has always characterized our approach.

Our main project sites were the towns of Hasakeh, Amuda and Kamishlo: we started in the urban centers to include all the healthcare facilities managed by the KRC and to ensure the efficient and safe management of their healthcare waste.

We started working in the big hospitals, where most of the waste is generated, and created two dedicated facilities for waste processing. The project’s first phase was very challenging and it continues to be so; this is just the first step towards the strengthening the capacity of the Red Crescent and local healthcare authorities, like Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria’s Department of Health.

This project became particularly important in light of the pandemic, as efficient healthcare and efficient and safe Covid-19 waste management is a vital means of limiting transmission.

Our focus at the moment is community information campaigns, raising awareness of the importance of efficient and safe waste disposal; and above all,  offering training courses for health workers in the clinics and hospitals.

This video, for example, was produced to train medical staff and support staff in clinics and hospitals, when it was impossible to hold face-to-face training courses.

We are also providing personal protection equipment for the safe handling of waste; for collection (bins and recyclable bags) and vehicles, while renovation work on healthcare waste disposal facilities continues.

Up-coming project initiatives include a collaboration with Syrian town councils for the development of long-term strategies for urban and non-urban waste disposal and ways to monitor the re-use, recycling and adaptation of recycled waste.

This initiative, which directly relates to the internationally recognized right to health and wellbeing (article 25 of the Declaration of Human Rights) because, our approach is always to deal with an emergency situation by establishing a long-term plan for strategic development.