Executive Summary

The evaluation mission took place March 15 to March 17, 2004. The agenda comprised interviews and discussions with the project coordinator and the staff of the NGO project partner, site visits to project/target areas, a meeting with the Bombay Municipal Corporation, and a discussion of the evaluation questionnaire and of the project operations in the remaining implementation time

Findings

After some initial delays, the project was implemented as per the PoA and has achieved its operational targets and output to a large degree. The two demonstration projects - a vermiculture facility in South Bombay, processing 5 tons of wet garbage per day, and an "environmental road" integrating greening and beautificatio with environmental management - have both been shown to be viable approaches to several of the serious environmental problems the Bombay city authrotities face at the moment. The project partners have cooperated closely in these activities, and have adopted adequate management structures and procedures.

Assesment of Findings

• Relevance has been demonstratedc on all levels:
  
  • Project activities: The concepts which the project has pursued (vermiculture, enviro road, and social enterprises) have been shown to be usefull in addressing issues of solid waste management and environmental management under the given conditions in Bombay.
  • For the project partners: All project partners have benefited from the project activities, and will use the experience and competance gained from this project in their future activities.
  • To Asia-URBS priorities: The project partners have exchanged best practices, and the Bombay local government has been motivated to adopt decentralised solid waste management operations and environmental management prodedures.
• Sustainability: The project has achieved manifest changes on the policy level and within the participating institutions; these changes will have a sustained effect on the future activities of the project partners, and will lead to better practices and increased efficiency in their respective operations. However, on the operational level the continuation of th epresent activities is at the moment not yet assured, as the local government partner has not yet decided to finance the operation of the two demonstration projects after termination of the project.
• Partnership: The project partners have developed a close cooperation and a good partnership amongst each other; several initiatives are being pursued already for further cooperation between the project partners.
• Visibility: The project has paid much attention to visibility issues, and has achieved much publicity, including a presentation of the project activities to the President of India.