The Environmental Components of the National Agenda

This is my weekly environmental article published in the Star newspaper this week

By: Batir Wardam

Awake from Hybernation

The National Agenda was prepared in 2005 and launched in 2006 comprising a comprehensive political and socio-economic reform plan for the country until 2017. The National Agenda was based on extensive research and integrated inputs from key players and organizations from within and outside the government. The main goal of the National Agenda is to achieve consistent policies and ensure that they will not be subject to government change while taking into considerations the need to regularly develop and update these policies.

After its modest and watered-down launch in 2006 the National Agenda went through an "imposed" period of hibernation, as reform pace was getting slower and the National Agenda finding more critics than supporters in the public administration apparatus. This hibernation period ended with HM King Abdullah's commitment to use the document as a guiding principle for planning in Jordan. In his letter of designation to the new PM Nader Dahabi the King reiterated the importance of the National Agenda and then mentioned it again in the throne speech infront of the newly elected Parliament, in which many former members were opposed and critical of the document.

Dahabi's government has taken this message seriously and endorsed the National Agenda as its "implementation programme for 2008-2010" linking it to the national budget and clear performance indicators. This will make the National Agenda turn from theory to implementation in the coming few years.

Environmental sustainability

The National Agenda contained a special section on environmental sustainability within the chapter on infrastructure development. The chapter on infrastructure included recommendations on water and energy while the section on environmental sustainability focused on six issues: institutional arrangement, air pollution, waste management, biodiversity, land management and the marine environment. Following are the main recommendations contained in the environmental component of the National Agenda.

It was refreshing to note that the Ministry of Environment has taken a proactive approach in implementing the environmental components of the National Agenda even before the Agenda's ascendance to the level of top policy planning. This will be clear through this round-up of environmental projects and initiative contained in the National Agenda.

Land Management and biodiversity

In the area of land management and combating desertification the Agenda derives many of its initiatives from the National Action Programme to Combat Desertification released in 2005. The Agenda calls for adopting a national sustainable land use plan which was achieved in 2007 through a special Royal Committee entrusted with developing the first national landuse plan in the history of the Kingdom. Other initiatives include improving water use efficiency by adopting the most advanced technologies in irrigation systems, to minimize soil erosion, sedimentation and salinization, carrying out afforestation and soil conservation measures in areas prone to erosion and enhancing research for drought and saline tolerant crops, and seed production.

In the area of biodiversity conservation the National Agenda calls for the continuation of the establishment of the national protected areas network and the enhancement of strict monitoring on wildlife components against human induced threats. This has been already partially met with the announcement of establishing four new protected areas in the next 3 years, as well as the development of a national policy for protected areas that specify exactly the number and location of the proposed new reserves. Regarding monitoring, the establishment of the new "environmental police" force is considered to be a milestone in the efforts for better enforcement of regulations. The 400 members strong environmental police derive its mandate from national laws including the articles in the environmental and agriculture law that prohibit exploitation of wildlife species and ecosystems.

Waste management

The section on waste management is the most comprehensive environmental section in the National Agenda. The first recommendation is to develop solid waste management policies, promote environmentally sound disposal sites, encourage recycling and minimize solid waste generation. Although there is no clear waste management policy in Jordan yet many advances have been achieved in meeting this recommendation. A new programme to enhance waste separation at the level of landfills is being implemented by the Ministry of Environment in a public-private partnership with interested firms from the private sector. Four major landfills will be subjected to comprehensive rehabilitation in the next four years to guarantee sanitary measures in waste management and treatment.

The second recommendation calls for the development of a hazardous and chemical waste institutional framework which includes knowledge dissemination mechanisms and information tracking, along with an enforcement regime, in order to ensure that hazardous and chemical waste is adequately stored, collected and disposed off. The Ministry of Environment is aiming for the privatization of hazardous waste management through the upgrading of the Swaqa landfill for hazardous wastes through investments from the private sector that will lead to integrated and effective treatment of locally generated hazardous wastes.

Regarding medical wastes, the Agenda calls for improving medical waste segregation, transportation, storage and treatment. In order to support the implementation of effective management, the legislative framework should be updated and enforced. This is also a public-private initiative. The government has sought the support of private sector to build and operate treatment stations for the treatment of medical wastes from the Central region in Jordan (about 60% of all nationally generated medical wastes). In the North, the incinerator of the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) takes good care of the medical wastes generated in the north, while in the south a series of treatment stations should be built for the geographically wide and infrastructure short governorates.

Being optimistic

It is actually good to see that some of the recommendations have already been moved in the path of implementation. For a long time many smart recommendations were kept on the shelves with the lack of a proper political will and good planning hindering implementation. I hope next year I will be able to write an article here describing a greater success in implementation. Let us keep our hopes high.