From the Field: How a Coastal Community Revived its Waterways through Improved Waste Management

From 2019-2024, USAID’s Clean Cities, Blue Ocean program piloted solutions in Sri Lanka to strengthen local  waste management systems to reduce ocean plastic pollution. In the district of Jaffna, located on the northern tip of Sri Lanka, USAID worked with local grantee organizations to improve recycling rates–including by engaging the local community, strengthening logistics for collection and processing, as well as building the capacity of local authorities to manage the increased volume of recyclables.

The Challenge

In Jaffna’s coastal village of Gurunagar, the ocean sustains the community, with 90% of the population working in the fishing industry. However, the bay, lagoons, and waterways have become primary waste management avenues. With its less than eight square miles as home to over 12,000 people, Gurunagar’s dense population, limited land, and reliance on single-use plastics have made it one of the most polluted towns in Jaffna.

In 2022, a nation-wide fuel shortage, resulting from the country’s worst economic crash, limited Gurunagar municipal waste collection to once a week, forcing residents to bring their waste to a few designated collection points. Without regular pickups or an established recycling system, waste began to be disposed of and accumulated in the environment, with waterways becoming the default waste management solution.

USAID’s Approach

In early 2023, Clean Cities, Blue Ocean partnered with the Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) to identify the root causes of the burgeoning waste problem and develop a sustainable waste management strategy that would work for Gurunagar and its residents. 

By better understanding city constraints, including its geographical congestion, high population density, and limited local waste management expertise, Clean Cities, Blue Ocean identified three key elements that must exist in concurrence for lasting and impactful change to take place in the community: 

1. Improved waste collection and route efficiency 

Lack of daily waste disposal was determined to be one of the greatest contributing factors to Gurunagar’s pollution. As a long-term solution, Clean Cities, Blue Ocean identified that increasing collection to occur daily, at least five days per week was needed. In the interim, Clean Cities, Blue Ocean and the JMC established and deployed a fleet of hand carts that were able to effectively reach more neighborhoods five to seven days a week without reliance on expensive fuel.

2. Increased community participation for sustainable waste management and disposal practices 

With the roll-out of more effective and frequent collection services, Clean Cities, Blue Ocean also recommended social and behavior change activities within the community. With illegal dumping having become the standard practice, a series of community awareness programs were launched to educate residents about the long-term impacts of plastic waste. A key part of this programming was empowering the community to help in the JMC’s action plan by forming a youth-led community group and encouraging residents to sort their daily waste between wet and dry bins, contributing to recycling efforts once the waste had been collected. 

3. Collaboration between local government and the private sector to create better systemsMobilizing partners across sectors ensured the prolonged success and adoption of Gurunagar’s roadmap for success. Clean Cities, Blue Ocean engaged Clean Ocean Force, a local non-profit, to organize community beach clean-ups and remove waste that had accumulated over time. Supporting these efforts, the Governor of Northern Province, local businesses, and other private sector entities banded together to expand the clean-ups and procure more public waste bins.

Changing Tides: A Community’s Shared Success

The Gurunagar community is a prime example of what is possible when local governments work together with residents, local businesses, and solid waste experts. In just under a year of adopting the roadmap put forth by Clean Cities, Blue Ocean, this community-led effort has expanded collection by hand carts to another three crossroads. On average, 1.7 metric tons of organic and plastic waste per month are now being collected. Additionally, new community groups like the Gurunagar Welfare Society group, formed by youth in the community, are fundraising for a Cleaner Gurunagar initiative, mobilizing more legacy waste removal activities, starting social media campaigns, building drainage tunnels, and installing canal strainers.

For more information on Clean Cities, Blue Ocean and its work in Sri Lanka please visit here.