Belize

 General Information

As part of its efforts to become a leader in environmental stewardship and in line with national development planning, Belize has strengthened its policy framework. Water and sanitation have been explicitly addressed in instruments including its 2014-2024 National Environmental Strategy, the 2008 National Integrated Water Resources Management Policy and 2011 National IWRM Act.

The formulation of a national Policy and Strategy on Wastewater Management derived from these policies as the means to achieve targets on liquid waste management by addressing existing gaps. These include the harmonization of instruments at different levels, improved inter-institutional coordination, and development of incentives in parallel with improved enforcement. Additionally, it is foreseen that a circular economy approach is to be incorporated to develop the reuse of wastewater. 

Opportunities to improve water and wastewater management systems across the country through policy, regulatory and financial instruments have been identified. These could help in addressing gaps in service provision, governance and data collection.

GEF CReW+ in Belize 

The project provides support for national activities in three components: 

• Component 1: Institutional, policy, legislative and regulatory reforms for Integrated Water and Wastewater Management (IWWM). 
  
  
• Component 2: Sustainable and tailor-made financing options for urban, peri-urban and rural IWWM.
  
  
• Component 3: Provision of innovative small-scale, local, rural, peri-urban and community-based solutions for IWWM.