Bo Waste Management Project goes National
“Little things can grow into much bigger things but it might take a little while.”
Things are moving on in Sierra Leone with Undergraduate Certificate and Diploma Courses in Municipal Solid Waste Management now being offered by Fourah Bay College on behalf of the University of Sierra Leone. The Eastern Technical University in Kenema is also offering a 1 year Certificate course and a 2 year Diploma course on Urban and Municipal Waste Management. Who would have thought that would happen when OWL sowed those early seeds in Bo?
Furthermore, just last month (17th November), Sierra Leone held its first National Waste Management conference. It would seem that it was well attended with good representation from Government Departments.
The waste management project was born back in 2007 when OWL persuaded the UNDP to invest in equipment to help Bo City Council to resolve their huge waste problem. The municipal waste disposal system had collapsed during the dreadful civil war in the 1990s and they were starting again from almost nothing. Facilitated by OWL, specialists from Warwickshire County Council, Glenn Fleet and Derek Greedy, provided guidance for the project. It was later taken on by the German NGO Welthungerhilfe.
Bo now claims to be the cleanest city in Sierra Leone. As Derek says: “Makes you feel good when you see those early efforts turning into all this. Little things can grow into much bigger things but it might take a little while.”
