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Klaus Fischer, ISWA, University of Stuttgart
The second regional workshop in Latin America was held in La Paz, Bolivia in September 2008. The meeting was divided into two parts internal and public meeting, which brought together participants from various institutions, such as representatives from public administration, universities, and international agencies.
The internal meeting was attended by all Latin American partners. All representatives evaluated the current issues and defined the necessary tasks that should be fulfilled for the closure of the different work packages and of the project itself. The topics that were discussed included: - Internal financial and administrative issues
- Development of WasteNet website and e-newsletter
- Publication of results and outputs
- Build up and expansion of WasteNet networks
- Political strategy for a sustainable future in waste management
- Proposals for a future RTD strategyResults of the workshop
The workshop showed further problems of waste management in the partner countries and helped to get a deeper insight into this problem. During the public session, it was possible to see examples of the first attempts towards sustainable solid waste management in the hosting country.
One of the most important aspects was the discussion about the contribution of solid waste as a source of renewable energy. Even though, the situation in different partner countries is not entirely comparable, it became evident that all the countries have regions in which their inhabitants still do not have access to infrastructure such as electricity and sanitation . In reference to this , it was discussed if the implementation of small low-tech biogas plants would help to improve the situation of these families. Since waste management is very poor in rural areas, this solution might improve both, the environmental and the living conditions. The identification of possible target areas will be therefore one of the main tasks in the following working period.
Another topic of discussion was the possibility to work with CO2-certificates in the partner countries. In this regard, it was possible to see that in most of the countries there is not enough governmental support in terms of information and guidance. Another problem was related to the unfair prices from the traders, making such projects not attractive.
As a result of the above discussions, new proposal points for future EU strategies were derived, which will be discussed further during the following working period with each partner.
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