Radio Miraya
2660: The 6th EACO Regional E-Waste Workshop on Sustainable E-waste Management: Director General of the National Communication Authority, Napoleon Adok Gai
- A very good morning to you. Welcome, you're listening to the Miraya breakfast show, of course, this is where the big conversation begins every morning. Well, it's 25 minutes to the top of the hour and I'm glad to tell you that we have our guests with us here in the program and we will be discussing and looking at the Sustainable E-Waste Management. Now the sixth echo or the East African community workshop on Sustainable E-Waste Management in East African region starts today in Juba and we'll continue till Wednesday. Now the theme will be based on sustainable strategies on E-Waste in South Sudan and East African community region, a holistic approach. Well, I'm glad to tell you that we have with us here in the studio to learn more about this and to get to know the importance and significance of this E-Waste Management is engineer Napoleon Adok Gai, who is Director General of National Communication Authority. Engineer Napoleon, good morning and it's good to have you on the Miraya breakfast show. - Good morning, sir. Thank you. - Yes. - Welcome. Let's begin right with this particular E-Waste Management workshop that is happening this week here in Juba. Could you briefly tell us what is this all about? Well, electronic waste management, which we shortened into E-Waste, is a global mobilization to try to ensure that disposable electronics that are rich, the end of use are disposed of appropriately to protect environment and human health. So the regional meeting today is basically the E-Aco is a gathering of East African communication organization, bringing all the member states to this body. So Sudan is hosting the US conference where we are looking at the solution at the regional level to harmonize ourself on how to manage and dispose of this waste in a more sustainable way. - Great. - Today, electronic has become part of our lives. If I ask you now, where did you put the phone you own in 2013? You wouldn't have an idea. You probably give it to a relative, which pass it on to another cousin and so forth until it is disposed of either in your house or somewhere. - Indeed. Now, is that a problem? Is it a concern, actually, this E-Waste disposal or management here in South Sudan at the moment? Have we reached a stage of concern, or are we getting there? - We have reached a stage of concern because we are a country that is in love with donations. You've seen how many things, we have been donated food, medicine, cameras, television screens, printing machines. So ask any government official or any charity that has been here, many organizations pride themselves that we have been working in South Sudan for a very long time. Ask them, where did they dispose of their printers that they started with in 1998 in the room back, for example, where are those electronics? And those things, they don't degrade. So if you, it has become a concern because some of these electronics, when you dispose them off in a bad way, they can become seriously hazard, the health hazard to the environment as well, and also to the people, particularly the children. So you remember in old days, they used to tell us, "You take care of the batteries, Agilvataria." - Yes, Agilvataria. - I put a mark with, "What is the reason behind it?" It's because Agilvataria contains certain substance that can be a poisonous to kids and also to all people. So it's the same thing. - Yes. Now this conference that is taking place here, beginning today, who are the participants and what is the program going to look like? - The participant, the program is co-hosted with the United Nations Training and Research body and the IACO, and is hosted by NCA, National Communication Authority. And the participants are coming from East Africa, from Tanzania, from Rwanda, Brundi, Uganda, and Kenya, and including our newest members, the Somalia and DRC. And in the level of stakeholders, of course, it includes everybody, and mainly you will, you will know that it includes also the people responsible for the environment, because this is a cross-cutting issue. So what we have done, six months back, we have undertaken research here, focusing on the source for us to understand the baseline. And we found that 85% acknowledge the existence of E-West, but they are not sure of where those electronics are ended up. You will find, if you work in the corridors of government offices, you will find discarded electronic devices sitting around, being used sometimes as tables. The same thing was applied to NGOs. Many of them are importing electronics, but nobody knows where do they end up. So in this conference, basically, to come up with strategies, how do we manage this? And there are ways that we have proposed, including a collection point. So when you have that electronic that you don't know where to do with it, we will provide a place where you can drop it off, and then it will be taken care of. But conventionally, the way it is done, even industry, is manufacturing a large number of electronics. They always provide a way to return it back to the factory, so they can dispose them off properly. Great. Now, of course, Juba is hosting this event today. Basically, what are the expected outcomes after this particular work soon? Well, one of them is that NCA will establish a collection point together with the Ministry of Environment, and also to intensify it on public awareness, because awareness is the key. If people knows that these telephones at the reign of life, they need to be managed properly, and you need to find a way to send them off. One of the things we're going to impose is to make sure that the nation that are coming into our country, we've got to look at the lifespan of those electronics. There are so many people bringing computers, bringing printers, including small phones for school, but I have seen that there are so many radios being distributed around the solar radio. People are proud that they are very good, but I have been asking them, if you bring this thing, when they don't work, what happened to them? Because you brought thousands of them, and you take them as far as a will, as far as Kaji Kaji, but what happened when they get spoiled? Do you get them repaired? Have they returned a point of collection? So we are going to change that policy and ensure that if you donate electronics, you might also donate a way to manage it. Now, of course, East Africa have a lot of these countries, but South Sudan is the one hosting this six event. What is the significance of South Sudan hosting this event? The significance is to be able to enlighten our people to the danger of electronics that have come to the end of life. This event, we are not hosting it out of charity, we are hosting it out of need to sensitize our people, so that large stakeholders are in South Sudan that are not involved in the electronic waste management, and they are contributing. As you've seen, our market is littered with all these telephones that we don't know where they end up. So we are the newest in the region. The rest are ahead of us. They have set up a recycling unit. They have a strict policy guideline for disposal of these things. So we are the newcomers, and therefore, we reach out and that we need all the help we can get to educate ourselves to prepare, come up with strategies. That's what we are expecting at South Sudan. - Great. Now, the theme for this workshop is based on sustainable strategies on e-ways in South Sudan and the history of concomainty region, a holistic approach. Can you explain to us more about this? - This approach is basically looking at how we must harmonize our regional policies on sustainable e-ways management, because our markets are interlinked. People are traveling to Kampala, Nairobi, and Tru and Fourth. So it's the same strategies that we are saying, if you apply this rule in Tanzania, it should be the same in South Sudan, and therefore, we also set up regional centers for managing this, so that we don't wait to say South Sudan is behind on everything, so they let them be the dumping ground, so that when electronic data at the end of life is about to enter our country from Mombasa, the Kenyan should be able to stop it the same way they stop it from coming to South Sudan. It's attainable in a way that it is the regional border, rather than just us alone. Also for us, we wouldn't be allowed to think coming in from Sudan entering the East African region. We are going to reciprocate to make sure that we strengthen our laws to prevent the flooding of substandard electronics, and also to ensure that we control these equipment. - Great, and you did mention about establishing of collection points by the National Communication Authority or South Sudan as such. Before we reach there to that establishment, at the moment, if I'm listening to this program, many people have electronics all over the country. Now, how do we get rid of them right now? How do we, you know, dump them? What do we do with them when they've reached their end of life? - First, you need to be aware that there is such things as US. This is the first step. Knowledge itself is the first step for the solution. The second step is that we are going to be publishing together with the Minister of Environment, a collection point. In each state, we shall come up with a location or an office where all those equipment that you don't need, and you need to free up the space or discard it. And we will then be ferrying them to the NCA. We'd work together with appropriate recycling. Remember, these equipment have also some dangerous substance like batteries and all this stuff. So we also manage it. We don't just dump them in our compound. We also want to come up with a way to package them and dispose them up and send them to the appropriate people who can do that until when our country is sufficient enough to do it on recycling and dispose of those things in a way that protect the environment and protect the people. So don't throw your old telephone outside in the bin. - To be honest, many people haven't seen this as waste. Probably the phone just gets spoiled and is done delivering the house until it finds it's way wherever it goes and where is that? - Yeah, nobody can. - So you have not answered my question. - Absolutely no. - I will shorten it. I will shorten it. Where is the phone you were using five years ago? - Well, I don't know. - You don't know. - I really don't know to be honest. - So that is the danger itself. I wish you knew. Because many of us, we buy a new phone, we pass it on to a relative, the relative pass around to the other, and then it will die somewhere. - Indeed. - And that's somewhere within our environment. - Absolutely. - Now after this particular conference in this workshop, what mechanism is Southland putting in place for a long-term sustainability approach of A-West management? Because now you did mention about collection points, yes, we can collect that, put it there, and probably that is a short-term solution. But a long-term solution where Southland can have a sustainability approach. - Well, what are we looking at? - Well, we are looking at first establishing guidelines and coming up with laws and policies that will regulate and standardize the waste management start by controlling imports. What type of thing you are buying? What are the lengths of life? People come back with the computer given to them that has maybe six months, and then after six months, broken down. So there we intend to come up with the policies to ensure that people who are importing these things, there are a standard guideline, they must follow. So import control, that is the first thing. In the term of telecom sector, we have what we call type and approval control. So we must approve every electronics using our country. We approve it to make sure that it can conform to the operation standard as a proof internationally, and also we approve that it conform with what the manufacturer said, that this phone will work for three years or two years. Otherwise, we then have to put a cap. If something is just coming to work for six months and you are shipping in 20,000 pieces of them, just because they are free, we might have to say no to that kind of donation. - Great. - And we are holding quite a number of those stuff with us. - All right, now the National Communication Authority is holding several events in the coming weeks, just without going into details of any you like to share with us. - Well, we are holding what we call our annual town hall event is an event that we've been hosting for the last four years, yearly. And this event is titled Connecting Sauce Done is where the stakeholders in the telecom sector and ICT sector come together with public. It is where maybe I am held publicly accountable. I have also to give a report of my performance, my failure, what are my challenges? So it's where I subject myself to public accountability as a leader of the institution. As well, I invite the stakeholders, the service providers to also be subjected to the same scrutiny. What are the challenges? Why is the network not improving? Why are the costs so high? All these things, we bring everybody on table to discuss and come out with a way forward. So we do this annually as a public accounting exercise, basically. - All right. In India and Napoleon, thank you so much for coming to Miraiya Studios and talking to us about this E waste management system. I, from today onwards, I will be very careful where I put my phones that are coming to an end on my computers or any other electronics. - Please extend the message. - Yes. - What will be your final remarks and message that you like to send from the conclude this conversation? - Well, my final remarks in regard to this event, the electronic waste is something we all have to play a role. So please find all electronic you've discarded in your house or in your office. And find a way that it is delivered back to where it is. So don't throw electronic randomly. That's all I can say, to protect our environment and those with the key in particular. - Thank you. - All phone cannot become a toy. - Thank you. Thank you so much for coming to Miraiya Studios. Hope to see you again in the program for some other conversations. - Thank you very much.