The Peace Corps stresses sustainability. Projects won’t be supported if there is no clear plan for the continuation of the work after the volunteer leaves, or if the skills necessary aren’t transferred to individuals locally. While sometimes limiting and occasionally frustrating, it’s a good rule to follow in community development, and a strong starting point for discussions with community work partners. If we begin this project, who will be in charge of A or B? What happens after three weeks, nine months, a year? How do we guarantee this will last?

As a result, most of the projects Peace Corps volunteers complete are things that we can assume will stand the test of time, active long after a PCV leaves site. Except when they don’t.

Two years ago, a health volunteer, B, helped her community establish a trash collection program. She lived 30 km away from my village, and everyone in the region knew her and her purple trash cans. The community association was excited and supportive of the initiative, taking charge and making sure the system in place could stand passing seasons, shifting moods, and population flux in the village. B left Morocco last year and another volunteer, W, took her place. Then the national elections happened.

Like Canada or Britain, Morocco uses a parliamentary system. Communities vote for local leaders, and each party (of which there are many) gains a proportional number of seats in parliament. W could only watch as a new party took control in her village, one that had nothing to do with the implementation of B’s trash system, no knowledge of its function, and no real interest in maintaining it.

Despite the best efforts of W and those in her community, the purple trash cans are no longer in use. With no one emptying the cans, garbage has continued to pile up, creating a true health hazard as the summer heat approaches.

While there was no way for B or Peace Corps to anticipate the death of the project, it’s a reminder that nothing can be taken for granted. True sustainability, while ideal, may not always be attainable, and local politics can determine more than we think. How volunteers navigate that fact is something we’re only beginning to consider.

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