Disaster Waste Management

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:56): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability Environment and Conservation. Will the minister tell the chamber about the South Australian government's recent scoping study regarding disaster waste management contingency plans for the state?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:56): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. Natural disasters, obviously, leave great devastation in their wake. In South Australia we need only to think about recent bushfires to comprehend that. But there is one side of natural disasters which is often ignored in contingency plans and which we advocate organisations and communities and, indeed, individuals, to put in place, and that is what happens after the disaster in terms of waste and how it is managed.

Natural disasters, in particular large-scale natural disasters, can generate overwhelmingly large quantities of waste materials. These can exceed the normal waste management capacity of the affected area and threaten public health, hinder reconstruction and impact on the environment. Disaster waste management affects almost every aspect of an emergency response as well as the long-term recovery of a disaster-affected area. If planned for in advance and managed properly, risk to environment and health can be prevented or minimised.

Waste generation can become, often times, a useful resource in the disaster recovery and rebuilding process and can have a positive effect on social and economic recovery for communities. Waste planning, therefore, is critical prior to experiencing our disasters, but very few regional and local governments either in Australia, or indeed around the world, actually plan ahead like this.

The current South Australian Emergency Management Framework and plans do not provide clear guidance and clarity when it comes to the roles and responsibilities of disaster waste management. The review of the South Australia's Waste Strategy 2011-2015 has also identified disaster waste management as an important area of policy development.

So, to fill this gap, Zero Waste SA has proposed to undertake a multiple phase disaster waste management contingency plan project. It has successfully applied for grant funding of $40,000 under the commonwealth government's Natural Disaster Resilience Program to undertake phase 1 of the project.

There are a number of overriding objectives for the project. First is to support capability building for disaster resilience in the state through enhanced clarity of responsibility. It also aims to increase accessibility of information and understanding on disaster waste management issues and to improve the state's preparedness to enable timely, effective and sustainable decision making for local response and recovery activities. Phase 1 of the project includes a scoping study for disaster waste management contingency plans with a number of key elements, including:

assessment of disaster waste profiles associated with each of four major disaster types, (bushfires, earthquake, floods and storms) and for certain scenarios;

mapping of waste management facilities and their capacity currently;

identification of disaster waste management options, issues and potential suppliers;

a review of current disaster waste management practices, including case studies of local incidents;

a review of regulatory and policy settings pertaining to disaster waste management; and

development of a holistic and structured planning methodology applicable to detailed zone-level disaster waste management contingency plans. In addition, Zero Waste will also undertake an internal investigation to identify location-based data needs and requirements for disaster waste management.

The results of the phase 1 scoping study will help to inform the development of an appropriate policy instrument to fit in the current state of emergency management framework, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities for disaster waste management.

The public tender for the phase 1 scoping study was released on the SA tenders website, I am told, on 19 January of this year and closed on 6 February. I am advised that six submissions were received and assessed against weighted selection criteria. A consortium combining local and international experts was selected to undertake the scoping study, which was led by a local South Australian firm. An initial stakeholder round table, I am advised, was held on 19 March, and further stakeholder engagement will be undertaken during the study.

This is a very timely project. It is likely the first of its kind, at least that I am aware of, certainly in the Australian context, and I would like to commend Zero Waste and all the parties working with them involved in progressing this important and valuable work for our state.