4 March 2013: The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), with funding from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and technical support from Griffith University and the Fiji National University, has initiated an annual training course on best practice waste management techniques.

The two-week training course is being attended by 16 participants from eight Pacific island nations. The course, which has been developed specifically to address waste management challenges faced by the Pacific region, covers: policies and strategic approaches to solid waste management; financial sustainability; and best practice and sustainable development of waste treatment and operating centers. The training is using the train-the-trainer model, and participants are expected to facilitate training activities in their own countries on returning home.

Fiji’s Minister for Local Government, Urban Development, Housing and Environment, Colonel Samuela Saumatua, said the increasing volume of solid and hazardous waste poses “major threats to the national and regional environment.”

The course will run annually over the next four years, training participants from the Cook Islands, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. [SPREP Press Release]