The Ministries of Environment and Local Government of Bangladesh (a work group of at least 4 persons)

People representatives and officials of city corporations and municipalities of Bangladesh (a work group of at least 4 persons)

Companies and firms, NGOs, CBOs and other relevant organisations and individuals already working in the field of MSW management in Bangladesh or interested to contribute in future from both the Asian and European sides (work groups of at least 8 people at each big city, 2 of them regularly attend project meetings at Khulna and transfer learned knowledge directly to work group members who are lead other local stakeholders – NGOs, small local environmentally focused businesses and individuals and other organisations of interest)

Researchers, academicians and professionals from both the European and Asian organizations have been working in the areas of MSW management.

Citizens of the six major cities of Bangladesh (Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barisal, Sylhet) and other urban areas.

If the feasibility study is perform as planned it might lay the basis for a larger-scale demonstration project, aimed at improving the living conditions of those persons living in the urban area where this demonstration project is located. This location will be one of the cities mentioned above. Hence the ultimate target group is the population of such urban areas in the least developed Asian countries.

 In European countries environmental issues have been treated intensively since the 1970s, while in Asia these aspects are only now being taken seriously. As a matter of fact in both theory and practice, Asian officials, academics, engineers and consultants who are faced with such issues usually refer to help from outside the region. European experts who are working in Asian countries often cannot adapt to the regional requirements and engineer in a "European style”, not addressing the actual problems or considering regional and LDACs-background. In order to treat the above-mentioned problems in a professional manner, it is necessary to have well-organised and continuing cooperation between European and Asian counterparts, to create a mutual understanding of problems and approaches for modern but sustainable solutions.

 Therefore European and Asian official, academics, engineers and consultants are important target groups in the project. While first and foremost the project addresses a specific problem in the field of waste management, it can also be expected to affect the way such problems are being treated by cooperating European and Asian experts.

 Waste management is one of the fundamental tasks of human communities at all scales. The issue of urbanisation in the developing countries and - related to this - increasing production of municipal solid waste has already been underlined above. The city councils, as the responsible authorities for the local communities of the urban areas, will be the major direct beneficiaries of a successful waste management scheme. They are the most important target group identified, since they will be directly responsible for the ultimate success of such an integrated, sustainable waste management system. Environmental agencies are responsible for authorisation of certain measures related to integrated waste management and safe disposal of residual parts.

 NGOs: In least developed Asian countries, a number of initiatives concerning waste management have been started in recent years by Non Government Organisations (NGOs). Inadequate programmes development of people awareness about house storage and separation of their solid waste, on-site storage, collection systems, treatment and ultimate disposal, had let to severe problems in health, hygiene and environment. Realising this, people are coming up with community-based local initiatives to improve primary solid wastes collection by providing house-to-house waste collection services, and by awareness and motivation campaigning in order to change the deteriorating environmental situation. These community-based local initiatives in the urban areas are mainly initiated and guided by NGOs, and have already proven - to a certain extent - successful in improving the situation concerning unmanaged municipal solid wastes in many LDACs. They have also started work on composting schemes to convert the organic parts of solid wastes into soil conditioner. Presently, the NGOs are following different styles and ways to handle the situation in the cities, and there is little effective coordination among them and also little control by the city councils as the financial assistance for NGOs mainly come from donor countries. However, the initiatives of NGOs have created an impression that the unmanaged municipal solid wastes in LDACs can be managed - despite the inherent limitations of these countries. To achieve this, and indeed to support this process of gradual attitudinal change, is a major goal of the proposed feasibility study.

 The presented project is fully compatible with the objective of the programme to improve the environmental quality, to improve mutual awareness and understanding of the EU’s environmental agenda in Asia and to achieve high environmental standards in towns, cities and mega cities through the exchange of best-practise, expertise and information between the European Union and Asia. The adaptation of a recent outcome of European Commission’s co-financed Asia Pro Eco Programme i.e. WasteSafe proposal and its reality check, development of a WMMP for a city of LDACs and  dissemination of its outcome in other five major cities of Bangladesh, identification of acceptable composting technology, the research on the usability of local building material for landfill construction, the landfill construction under wetland conditions, the development of an assessment system and the development of appropriate technical rules for all tiers of MSW managment, the realisation of demo projects on compost plant and landfill cell and training, workshops and seminar for dissemination of technology and experience will strengthen links between EU and Asia. It will share good practices, policies, systems and technologies to improve the environmental quality in urban contexts, particularly for the benefit of the most vulnerable populations in Asia. The project activities work on the capacity enhancement to improve the existing environmental quality in urban contexts, on improved environmental co-operation between the EU and Asia and to plan for new or expanding settlements particularly in the urban areas of LDACs in a sustainable way.

 An improved municipal solid waste management system would clearly contribute to the aims of the Asia Pro Eco II Programme, especially in the field of an "improved environmental quality (a cleaner Asia, including a positive influence on global change and health conditions)". The impact of such an improved system would be directly visible in a cleaner urban landscape and in the abatement of pollution of precious resources such as groundwater and surface waters. But its benefit would run much deeper in terms of good sanitation practices and the conquering of disease. The study would explore the feasibility of such schemes in Asia, specifically in the LDACs, and pave the way for a successful demonstration on the ground. In addition, the project will contribute to initiate or foster contacts and exchanges among Asian and European experts working in the field of waste management.