The Ministry of Communication, Information Technologies and Media in collaboration with the Agency for Regulation and Control of Telecommunications with the support of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has organized since Wednesday June 09, 2021, a 2-day consultation workshop on the implementation of the national policy for the management of electrical and electronic waste (WEEE).

This workshop is organized as a joint conference: representatives of local stakeholders meeting at the Royal Palace hotel in Burundi and international experts intervening in real time by teleconference from Dakar, Geneva, etc. The ministry in charge of ICTs and the one in charge of the environment in collaboration with ARCT is working collectively with the ARCT to implement the WEEE management policy with the technical support of the ITU.

A great challenge in the management of WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) arises: tons and tons of devices and cables enter Burundi without knowing how to manage them in case of non-use because there is no clear national policy or law on the subject, specifies the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry in charge of ICTs.

Faced with this uncontrolled situation of WEEE management, it is necessary that a broad consultation of stakeholders be made in order to implement the WEEE management policy. This WEEE, scattered everywhere without the slightest concern for its harmfulness by users, is of concern to more than one, including the Government of Burundi. It is in this perspective that the latter has ratified all international and regional conventions and agreements relating to the management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) but that it needs to adopt a national policy in accordance with these ratified conventions and agreements.

The government of Burundi also intends to put in place a law that will be a reference to govern all those who want to invest in the recycling of electrical and electronic equipment, whether private or state bodies, said Anicet Niyonkuru. This will make it possible to clean up the environment and prevent all the problems that may affect human life due to the lack of good management of WEEE in Burundi, he continued.

Anicet Niyonkuru took the opportunity to call on Burundians in possession of out-of-use electrical and electronic equipment to keep them at home and not to throw them into public dumps until a reassuring collection for recycling and destruction is organized, in order to ensure the proper management of this WEEE.