The awards ceremony was held in parallel to the conference in the Chinese City of Guangzhou from December 5-7, 2016. Qalyubeya has received the Urban Innovation Award for its achievements in the “Integrated Community-Based Solid Waste Management” project, which has been funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and implemented as part of the PDP from 2010 until 2014.
The prestigious award is put on by the City of Guangzhou as well as the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and Metropolis organisations. The technical jury of the award, consisting of members of Cities Alliance, ICLREI, FLACMA as well as scholars from the University of Zaragoza, screened the 301 project contributions from around the world according to the criteria of innovation, effectiveness, replicability, and significance in order to identify 15 candidates (cities of excellence) to be invited to the awards ceremony in Guangzhou.
The award-winning project from Qalyubeya was based on an integrated approach, which included the following measures:
• Informal garbage collectors (zabaleen) were promoted in the start-up of businesses and began working as formal contractors of the District administrations.
• Motorized three-wheel vehicles were introduced in the community, thereby enabling the garbage collectors to penetrate narrow streets of informal settlements and to carry solid waste to the newly constructed transfer station, which has also been established by the project.
• The construction of a recycling centre helps to segregate the solid waste into recycling materials and green fuels for the cement industry.
• A local health centre was equipped with a new first aid station, which is primarily designed to serve the needs of the zabaleen community
The experience from this project is already being adapted by other cities in Egypt and some of the project’s principles have been integrated into the National Solid Waste Management Strategy. While only 10% of the local residents were satisfied with the garbage collection services prior to the project, a survey confirmed that more than 70% approved of the solid waste collection methods afterwards. The measure hence created a significant positive impact on the lives of the local population.
The laudatory speech of Mr. Augusto Mathias from the Brazilian Federation of Cities and Municipalities focused on the successful application of the integrated approach, which was able to consider the social component of development in an effective way. General Amr Abdel Moneim, the Governor of Qalyubeya, vowed to build on this success during his speech of thanks: “I promise that we will continue with this challenging work for the benefit of Qalyubeya and Egypt”.
The PDP is the currently largest urban development project of GIZ and receives funding from the BMZ, BMGF and a majority co-financing from the European Union. The Government of Egypt is also contributing to the success of PDP financially and in-kind.