ReThink NGO, a member of the Ukraine Support Team coalition, held a series of workshops in Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions on best practices in managing debris caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine, including a new method for estimating the amount of debris created by an attack.
“Until now, communities were required to centrally report the amount of debris created by an attack, but did not have a unified tool to estimate this amount,” says ReThink co-founder and UST coalition chairwoman Olena Koltyk.
“The majority of communities counted them “by eye”, or by the number of cars removed at best. In addition, many communities only account for what was already delivered to temporary storage sites, not including buildings awaiting demolition. Thus neither the state nor the communities themselves have correct data. The planning of processing infrastructure as well as attracting private business is impossible without reliable statistics. Application of our Methodological recommendations will help to understand the scale of the problem.”
ReThink’s experts developed this new approach following an analysis of a Japanese methodology, and a study of typical buildings in Ukraine. The new method will help to form more objective statistical data for logistics planning and for the placement of future processing facilities, and will simplify community reporting under Resolution No. 1073, which mandates this reporting requirement.
The approach contains calculation formulas and standards for waste generation per 1 sq.m. of the destruction, according to the type of building. Representatives of territorial communities can use this calculation method to estimate both the total amount of generated debris and its amount by components (concrete, bricks, wood, asbestos, associated waste, etc.), based on the area of the destroyed building (or its parts) and the type of building.
Due to numerous requests from those who could not join the offline workshops, as well as the high interest in the topic of representatives from other regions of Ukraine, the ReThink team has expanded the geography of the workshops and will hold an additional online event on June 27 at 14:00 on the Zoom platform. Details and registration are at the link.
Workshops were held within the framework of the project “Rethink: Recommendations for Debris Management on the Frontlines” as a part of the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative, implemented with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
We sincerely thank our regional partners for their help in organizing events: the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, the Kherson Regional Military Administration and the Deputy Head of the Kherson RM Mykhailo Lemak, the Mykolaiv City Council and its’ Deputy Chairman Serhiy Korenev, the Regional Development Agency of the Odesa region, Mykolaiv Development Agency, Mykolaiv Regional Development Agency, Regional Development Agency “European Integration Office” of the Kherson region.
