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Banning Plastic Bags in Somaliland is a Step in the Right DirectionWardheerNews Editorial March 03, 2005. On March 1, 2005, Authorities in Somaliland banned the use and importation of all types of plastic bags in Hargeysa and the rest of the Somaliland. The minister of Trade and Industries, Mr. Cabdillahi Ducaale, told IRIN “the bags have not only become problems, but are an eyesore.” The term widely used by the residents of Hargeysa to refer to the omnipresent plastic bags is “the Hargeysa flower” lest these bags stick to tree trunks and side walks which slowly dominated the panoramic landscape of Hargeysa.
WardheerNews would like to applaud the decision made by the cabinet to ban plastic bags. If left unchecked, the long-term effect was an environmental disaster in the making in the region as well as in many African countries. In a previous special article on urban issued published on WardheerNews, Mr. Faisal Roble highlighted the seriousness of this issue in Hargeysa (see Trash Politics, WardheerNews, Jan. 13, 2005). Plastic bags are a low-density Polyethylene (LOPE), which is a very flexible material, making it utilitarian friendly as a waste material and as a bag for shoppers. Because of its agility to fold, it takes less space in landfills and may go very far before capacity of a landfill is exhausted. It is also shoppers friendly in that it is easily foldable and can carry a lot without tearing unlike paper bags, which fall apart under weight. However, plastic bags have serious environmental problems. In the short term, as is the case with Hargeysa, the visual decay created in the city's streets and neighborhoods became a permanent eyesore to a degree where they become unbearable. If left unchecked, a visual ruin of a city is the sure way to journey of urban blight, which is often difficult to overturn. In the long term, the ink printed on the plastic bag, used mainly for branding such materials, would potentially seep into the city's water sources, hence passing potentially carcenogenic materials, which are the source of serious diseases. Banning the use of plastic bags in the city's daily transactions in the markets and open Suqs is the right message.
A sustained effort to ban these bags would positively contribute to the reduction in potential diseases that are likened to many cancerous diseases and to the weakening of the immune system. But what takes in the place of the banned products and how will the government enforce these measures? After all, plastic bags served a limited purpose to shoppers. Mr. Ducaale said: “people should use reasonable environmental-friendly baskets and containers, such as sacks made of straws, reeds, sisal.” But he did not provide specifics of where would these alternative products come from. Are there industries, homegrown, that produce these products? Brazil offers a comprehensive alternative lesson in this regard. A former mayor in one of the major cities in Brazil has designed a program that earned him the highly revered award of the UN Habitat, which is an award given once a year to mayors with good public policies. The Brazilian program entailed several elements: • The residents of the city were encouraged to recycle all plastic materials by bringing them to a government-designated site. • In exchange, residents were offered a non-plastic bag of fruits and vegetables for every plastic bag of trash turned in. • The program beefed up the city's trash recycling plan and policies, making it a crucial element in the country's urban policy. In time, the city saw two positively interdependent results: • The health of the city's poor people improved for they now consumed more fruits and vegetables, two important diet categories that the poor initially ignored in favor of other food items. • The city's landfills become more manageable for the city did not only gained the ability to streamline recycling trash, but also more families had more non-plastic bags distributed by the government. What the government in Hargeysa did so far is commendable. However, the step taken so far could have negative consequences if the following two policies are not quickly instituted in addition to borrowing relevant lessons from other experiences: • The administration in Hargeysa must quickly move on to establish plans to build cottage industry for sisal production and straw bags-making activities. • It must create an office reporting to the ministries for Labor and for Urban Development and Housing to oversee the creation of jobs, mainly women-held jobs, in the production of alternative and environmentaly friendly bags for the growing urban population in the region. Such a plan would: a) strength the sustainability of the ban on plastic bags; and b) create an opportunity for jobs-generating activities for the under-employed women in Somaliland, especially so in light of the role that the United Nations office for the Environment has pledged to play in this crucial issue. The editorial board of wardheerNews applauds the steps that Hargeysa administration did on this matter and would closely follow up if and when objective plans are drawn to complete the process.
Please send comments to: editorial@wardheernews.com
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