To create jobs for the youth in TVET by deploying them in different industries, Rwanda’s only state-of-the-art e-waste dismantling and recycling facility in Bugesera District has equipped about 70 young people with skills in repair, maintenance and recycling of end of life electrical and electronic equipment.
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1.1. Ratification of Chemical-related multilateral environmental
Agreements.
Rwanda has ratified different international and regional chemical-related environmental agreements: Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal; Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade; Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, Bamako Convention on the ban on the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within Africa and Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
The key environmental and climate change issues in Rwanda include land degradation, deforestation, dependency on biomass for fuel, soil, water and air pollution, a lack of environment-friendly transport systems, vulnerability of natural ecosystems, lack of low-carbon materials for housing and green infrastructure development, inadequate waste treatment for both solid and liquid waste, increase of electronic, industrial and nuclear/radioactive wastes, limited coordination in environmental and climate change governance, among others.
Rwanda has taken a strategic decision to pursue a green growth approach to development. It is now sixteen years since the adoption and implementation of the 2003 Environment Policy. This calls for stocktaking of the achievements, setbacks, future opportunities and alignment with global, regional and national development agenda.
Vision 2050 aspires to take Rwanda beyond high income to high living standards by the middle of the 21st century. To realise our full potential and drive towards this goal, Rwanda is committed to being a nation that has a clean and healthy environment that is resilient to climate variability and change and that supports a high quality of life for its citizens.
The policy of 2019 have many policy objectives and policy statements with two of addressing chemical and chemical related pollution.
Though Rwanda has procedure that deal with waste in general, these do not include specific provisions for E-waste. However, E-waste is distinct in terms of its generation and processing. Currently, the municipality is responsible of the management of general waste and citizens are only required to pay for collection and disposal services. However, E-waste cannot be handled in the same way as general wastes because of its unique composition, which include non-biodegradable materials that can be harmful to the environment. This requires specialized disposal methods, skills and special facilities.
There is growing number of personal electrical and electronic devices in institutions, households, business facilities, etc. Moreover, with the growth of the telecommunication sector, the number of citizens subscribing to the mobile network has been firmly growing over the years.
For example, between November 2014 and January 2015, a survey was carried out to determine the status of E-Waste in Rwanda2. The survey revealed that for the period ranging from 2010 to 2014: