Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

Between 8 and 12 May, a technical delegation from the AMB and Barcelona City Council visited a number of Tunisian cities where various initiatives are being developed as part of the GeDeTun project, which focuses on improving the country's collection and management of municipal waste. GeDeTun project is co-financed by the AMB and Barcelona City Council.

This project is being carried out under the umbrella of MedCities, the network of Mediterranean cities working towards sustainable development, within which AMB holds the Technical Secretaryship.

During the project capitalisation seminar, which took place in the city of Bizerte, the AMB delegation discussed its experiences with the ecoparks-based model and other highly specialised management plants – a successful model that has been exported to many other areas in Europe and around the world.

At the same event, representatives of Barcelona City Council also discussed the city's collection model, and the various types of collection involved (dumpsters, door-to-door collection systems, and so on).

Those attending the seminar included Mohamed Guider, governor of Bizerte, Hammadi Ben Amor, President of the Special Delegation of Bizerte, Bassem Chergui, President of the Special Delegation of Kairouan, and representatives of other Tunisian cities in Medcities and the city of Tangier.

During the trip, AMB also visited other cities where the International Relations and Cooperation Area has undertaken projects. For example, a waste collection system with trucks equipped with GPS systems will be launched in Kairouan, which will optimise routes and greatly improve the cleanliness of the streets and eliminate so-called ‘black spots' – areas in the city where waste is dumped in uncontrolled way.

The town of Nabeul, another of the municipalities visited, wants to reach an agreement to regularise the situation of dozens of chiffonniers (rag-and-bone men), people who collect scrap from the street on an informal basis, and include them in a system monitored by the City Council, and improve both their quality of life and the waste cycle.

As part of this mission, meetings were also held with the mayor of Tunis, M. Seifallah Lasram, and with delegations from the European Union and UN-Habitat in the country, to discuss projects of common interest.