How should municipalities in developing countries go about initiating changes in management of solid waste? How can capacity building projects be better grounded in local realities? Who are the key stakeholders who must be brought on board? How can demand for better services be assessed? Who should pay?

These questions are addressed in a report from the University of Loughborough’s Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC) which presents the findings of research into how changes in solid waste management are being implemented in three cities in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Aiming to boost the capacity of government and non-government organisations in cost-effective primary collection of solid waste, it shows how an enabling environment can only be created after first understanding the strengths and weaknesses of current practices. Recommendations have wide relevance for all aspects of urban environmental management in developing countries.

Case studies analyse nine changes made in Dhaka, Faisalabad and Karachi. These have involved: a switch to night-time rubbish collection; introduction of demountable rubbish skips; providing waste managers with radios; a government campaign to clear up a huge unattended backlog of trash; recruitment of sanitary workers to sweep main roads; providing hand and donkey carts in a neglected slum area which lacked a rubbish collection service; working with a local woman’s group to set up a collection scheme; a privatisation initiative and a failed project to move rubbish to a landfill site by train. The studies analyse the process of initiating and winning support for the change, the influence of key stakeholders, sustainability and cost recovery implications and the positive and negative impacts of the innovation.

Among the common findings which emerge are that:

• Demand leads to the identification of problems, rather than the solutions.
• The general assumption behind pilot projects that they will automatically be replicated if successful needs to be validated.
• Capacity building cannot be undertaken without regard to the social, economic and political environment.
• Successful capacity building is about trusting target groups, building confidence among them, appropriately advising them, understanding their organisational constraints and planning achievable and affordable targets.
• Poor, weak and disorganised urban residents are rarely consulted about changes.

Arising from the case studies are suggestions that:

• We need to better understand demand for services and more accurately identify target groups and beneficiaries.
• All stakeholders should understand the possible risks and jointly develop risk sharing strategies.
• When waste management is contracted out to private operators it is necessary to develop strong links between households and contractors.
• More attention should be directed to both informing the public and encouraging their participation.
• Privatisation must not be allowed to discourage recycling/resource recovery.
• Projects cannot be judged to be sustainable if long-term financing for operation and maintenance is not available.

Source(s):
‘Process of change in solid waste management: Field Note’, Water, Engineering and Development Centre, Loughborough University by S. M. Ali and A. P. Cotton, 2000 Full document.

Funded by: DFID (IUDD)

id21 Research Highlight: 26 February 2002

Further Information:
Mansoor Ali and Andrew Cotton
Water, Engineering and Development Centre
Loughborough University
Leicestershire
LE11 3TU
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1509 222885
Fax: +44 (0)1509 211079
Contact the contributor: S.M.Ali@lboro.ac.uk

Contact the contributor: A.P.Cotton@lboro.ac.uk

Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC), University of Loughborough, UK

Other related links:
'Getting rid of rubbish: more than a technical issue'

'Clean sweep: fresh approaches to solid waste management in India and Pakistan'

'Rubbish disposal begins at home?'

Search Eldis for sources on waste management

'Living with Waste: Public Valuation of Solid Waste Impacts in Bangkok' from Sussex