As a result of the global energy crisis in 2007 the government started a new long term vision for making Mauritius a sustainable island. This is how in 2008 the Maurice Ile Durable (MID) concept appeared. Their vision is to embrace the sustainable development in 5 pillars, namely Energy, Environment, Education, Employment and Equity. The implementation started in 2009 and the budget for this year is 200 Million Rupees.
The MIDF (Maurice Ile Durable Fund) is specialized in financing project schemes or programs that are related to development of the 5 Es.
One of the ongoing projects is the Solar Water Heater Scheme. The government wanted to ensure that each household has a solar water heater panel. For this they give each household a grant of 250 Euros. Through this fund the Ministry of Education was financed in order to provide the Roman Catholic Schools with solar panels so that these institutions can produce their own electricity.
Through the Household Composting Scheme the Ministry is trying to make people segregating the waste in their houses. In order to create awareness regarding water and energy conservation, composting and biodiversity conservation, the MIDF finances projects in primary and secondary schools. One of these projects is being carried out under the School Waste Segregation Project of the Ministry of Environment & Sustainable Development whereby children segregate their waste aimed at recycling and composting purposes.
Some of their projects are also sponsored by external actors, for example the Japanese government is providing funding for costal parts. Furthermore Mauritius receives money from the European Union in order to promote climate change.
We would like to emphasize some facts that we consider as unusual as it is done in a different way than in Europe: The first is that there are only free bins in schools and the rest of them are provided by the Ministry of Tourism only in the touristic areas. Moreover people in Mauritius expect free bins as they do not like to pay for it. The second one is that the waste collected from the streets is going directly to a land field in the South. The third is that in some areas the scavengers are not cleaning the streets.
In the near future we would like to see in Mauritius a change in mindsets, more bins on the streets, sensitization and awareness campaigns for environment and cleaner streets.
Then, our next visit led us to Police of Environment. We wanted to discover what are the main issues concerning environment in Mauritius.
The Police of Environment is a special department of Ministry of Environment, which is totally attached to it and regulated by Environment Protection Act from 2002. During the interview with one of police officers, we found out that their main concerns are sole waste and water, air and traffic pollution.
Unfortunately, even though the country had implemented the act about environmental protection, nothing much changed since then. In May the Ministry of Tourism launched the program “you throw, you pay”, which is also not functioning well for the moment. People still continue to throw waste on the streets even though they receive a fine every time they are caught. The Police of Environment has already punished 686 people, mostly in Port Louis, for the costs of 200 Rs each person. Although people are still not afraid of receiving a fine, the consequences of getting it for the second time will be much more serious (visit to the court and a fine for 1.000 Rs).
In general on the island it is really hard to make a change, because of people’s mindsets and also due to the fact that the Ministry does not provide enough bins on the streets. In touristic areas we can see more facilities for collecting trash, which were introduced by Ministry of Tourism.
In Mauritius there are only 28 police officers for environmental causes. They are dressed as regular policemen and they can get support from the later if needed. There is a hotline available as well, functioning 24h/7, in order to give people possibility to report someone who is contaminating the environment. As we got to know, many people are calling.
Will you call this number 210 5151/5252 if you see someone throwing the waste on the street?
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