Odesa City Council Appeals to Exclude Region from Waste Program

City council members appealed to the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Oleh Kiper, to exclude the region from the waste management program.

At the session of the city council, they considered a draft appeal to the head of the OMA with a request to obtain a decision to exclude Odesa region from the WM4U program - "Strengthening Municipal Waste Management in Ukraine for 2024-2027". This initiative is funded by the Swedish government through Sida and implemented by Avfall Sverige and SALAR International.

Gennadiy Trukhanov emphasized that the Swedish side noted that there was no understanding between potential donors and the regional authorities. He also emphasized that this is very important for Odesa. He said that it is necessary to unite with the regional authorities and return to negotiations with Swedish donors.

The draft appeal was read out by MP Oleksandr Ivanitskyi. He noted that the draft included four regional centers, and only Odesa region was excluded. According to the MP, Poltava, Kharkiv, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions remained in the program.

"We ask you to give an urgent order to the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Odesa Regional State Administration to amend the draft regional plan for the management of approaches in the Odesa region until 2030, taking into account the need to implement a cluster approach and modern European practices in this area. We urge you to initiate a constructive dialogue between the Odesa Regional State Administration, the Odesa City Territorial Community, and international partners to develop an effective mechanism for implementing environmental policy in the region," the appeal says.

Earlier, Deputy Mayor of Odesa Hanna Pozdnyakova said that the responsibility for Odesa's exclusion from the international program of reforming the waste management system lies with the Department of Ecology of the Odesa Regional State Administration.

The official emphasized that representatives of the Swedish WM4U program had repeatedly appealed to the department, but to no avail. The Odesa City Council has repeatedly tried to convey the importance of the project and the need to amend the Regional Waste Management Plan until 2030. However, they failed to reach an understanding.

She also emphasized that due to this situation, not only Odesa, but also 11 communities of the region, including Fontanska, Usativska, Avanhardivska, Chornomorsk, Velykodolynska, Nerubaiska, Velykodalnytska, Bilyayivska, Chornomorsk settlement and Dobroslavska, lost the project.

Earlier it became known that the Swedish government had excluded Odesa from the cities selected as pilot territorial communities to participate in a Swedish government project to reform the national waste management system in accordance with European standards.

Ірина Глухова