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Report 1 (of 5): Marapodi
Make-Over - Zambia
Introduction
In many countries governments are
responsible for ensuring that garbage is collected,
transported and disposed of in a safe and environmentally
friendly manner. Common practice is for private contractors
to be used to collect waste from private businesses
and richer households in urban areas, but often in
developing countries these services are not extended
to the poor because they live in areas that are difficult
to access or they cannot pay for the service. As a
result huge piles of rubbish can be found throughout
poor settlements, making poverty, persistent ill-health
and low environmental quality part of everyday life.
Lusaka is Zambia's sprawling capital
city whose population is growing at an alarming rate.
The large amount of waste piling up in the streets
pollutes the water system and spread disease. It is
not just an environmental issue but a community one
too. Now, with the help of the UK government's Department
for International Development (DFID) City-Community
Challenge Fund or C3F, the Marapodi Waste Collection
Service is beginning to turn the settlement of Marapodi,
on the outskirts of Lusaka, into a clean and safe
place to live. C3F is an innovative approach to placing
development resources where they are needed most in
the form of multiple, small-scale investments to community-initiated
urban development projects while helping improve local
government capacity.
Waste Disposal in Zambia
Efficient disposal of solid waste includes
collection, sorting, transfer and disposal. Lusaka,
like many others cities in Zambia, experiences a lot
of difficulties in all stages of solid waste management.
Random collection and indiscriminate dumping is a real
threat to the environment and to life in general in
the city. It is estimated that an average Zambian produces
almost 0.5 kg of waste per day, costing approximately
US$26 per tonne to dispose of.
Local authorities responsible for
waste management are struggling to cope with the financial
demands of dealing with littering, uncollected garbage,
illegal dumping, hazardous waste and poor disposal
site standards. Approximately 90 per cent of the 1,400
tonnes of municipal waste that is produced daily is
left uncontrolled. Private contractors mainly collect
waste from industry, commercial premises and private
homes on a commercial basis. There are around 53 registered
private transporters of waste who collect only 2%
of municipal waste in Lusaka town, and community-based
organisations (CBOs) who collect waste from informal
settlements where local authorities do not provide
a collection service. CBOs account for all the waste
collected in these areas.
Local Initiatives
Initiatives are underway in Lusaka
that aim to collect and dispose of waste or ensure
it is recycled. Many of the initiatives being implemented
are collaborative programmes with various stakeholders
including:
- Lusaka City Council's sustainable
cities programme, aiming to improve water supply
and sanitation in peri-urban areas.
- The Asset Holding Company (AHC)
located in the Copperbelt provides municipal services
in five mine townships, involving waste collection,
operation of disposal sites and sewerage treatment.
- Non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) are supporting communities in unplanned peri-urban
areas with disposal of waste.
- Private enterprises are now being
encouraged to get involved in the collection and
disposal of waste on a commercial basis but, with
the absence of a framework for their involvement,
operations have not yet been streamlined.
- Community-based organisations have
also organised themselves in various Local Authorities
to solve solid waste and sanitation related problems
with the help of NGOs.
Marapodi Waste Collection Services
Marapodi Waste Collection Services
or MWCS, formed from members of the Marapodi residents
committee, illustrates how local community participation
can help to create a clean and disease-free environment
in which to live. With a population of 35,000 people,
Marapodi is beset by rubbish dumping, scavenging and
ultimately disease. The five members of MWCS received
a loan and training from the Sustainable Lusaka Project
(SLP), an initiative to promote environmental planning
at the grass-roots level. With the loan the group
hired young men from the settlement to collect household
rubbish and empty it into storage sites, called maiden
boxes, using newly bought pushcarts. Each resident
is asked to pay 1,000 Kwacha (US$0.21) each month
for their rubbish to be taken away.
Household rubbish, kept in plastic
bags and collected on specified days, is transferred
to storage sites on the edge of the settlement. Here
the Lusaka City Council agreed to collect the rubbish
and take it to a government regulated disposal site,
but without the capacity to collect all the rubbish
even from wealthy residential areas and business centres,
low-income areas like Marapodi are a low priority.
Seeing that their rubbish was not being collected
from the storage sites by the local council, the people
of Marapodi refused to pay for the rubbish collection.
In an attempt to find a solution and
continue the hard work already achieved, the MWCS
approached the City-Community Challenge Fund (C3F)
for finance to scale up their activities. The Fund
provides grants to support projects that benefit low-income
urban communities in Zambia and Uganda, and so agreed
to purchase a truck that would transport the waste
from the storage areas to the government disposal
site. The truck is currently waiting to be delivered
but it is hoped that once the backlog of rubbish has
been cleared, the local community will once again
start paying for the service - although, as some residents
have difficulty in feeding their families, it is not
easy to persuade them of the importance of waste collection.
The council will formally own the
truck but it will be used and controlled by six waste
collection groups in peri-urban areas of Lusaka, including
MWCS. The six groups have formed a secretariat (called
MANGOKA) to oversee the use of the truck and meet
once a month to discuss issues. This has shown that
community groups can successfully organise themselves
to deal with issues that benefit the whole community.
Solving the Problem
With concern growing over waste disposal
and the potential negative health impacts in peri-urban
settlements and cities, ways of promoting community
involvement in waste disposal include:
- Community awareness and education
programmes such as an environmental day - organising
cleaning programmes, seminars and rallies; environmental
competitions in schools - slogans, painting and
essay writing; publishing educational and instructional
materials on solid waste management, its importance
and impact.
- Establishing collection points
in various parts of the city and residential areas
where solid waste can be sorted and deposited in
different containers.
- Encouraging the establishment of
private small-scale industries to recycle some of
the components by providing the necessary technical
information and sources of funding.
- Providing adequate commercial sanitary
facilities in public places.
- Privatising the collection and
transportation of solid waste.
- Finding new suitable sites where
the waste can be deposited safely.
You may wish to
read
about another C3F project in Zambia,
'Breaking Even'.
For more information on the project,
please contact:
Urban INSAKA
P.O.Box 36238,
Plot 11038 Chozi Road,
Lusaka,
Zambia
Tel +260 1 291011/294044
Fax +260 1 293962
Email: bullkamanga@urbaninsaka.org
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Care International UK
10-13 Rushworth Street
London SE1 0RB
United Kingdom
Tel +44 20 7934 9334
Fax +44 20 7934 9335
Email: info@ciuk.org
Website: http://www.careinternational.org.uk/
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City-Community Challenge
Fund Pilot Project (C3F)
http://www.c3f.org.uk/
This is the official DFID website of C3 project,
which has more information on the pilot projects
and links to practitioners and policy makers
working with community-led small-scale projects.
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Information on Waste Management
International Solid Waste
Association (ISWA)
Overgaden Oven Vandet 48 E
DK-1415
Copenhagen K
Denmark
Tel +45 32 96 14 88
Fax +45 32 96 15 84
Email: iswa@iswa.dk
Website: http://www.iswa.org/
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Websites
www.worldbank.org/urban/solid_wm/swm_body.htm
The Urban Waste Management Thematic Group of the World
Bank formulates strategic approaches for integrated
municipal solid waste management projects to increase
coverage, especially for the urban poor, and provide
safe disposal.
www.epa.gov/osw
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office
of Solid Waste site has a comprehensive home page
that covers all aspects of waste management - from
storage and disposal to treatment. A list of publications,
US laws and regulations, and general information services
are included for Internet visitors.
www.epa.gov/msw
The US EPA Office of Municipal Solid Waste site has
a comprehensive home page dealing with several issues
concerning municipal solid waste management. A list
of EPA-sponsored programmes, disposal techniques,
and other general information is available.
http://www.waste.nl/
WASTE is a non-profit organization for development
projects in countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
WASTE works for organizations that aim at a sustainable
improvement of the living conditions of the urban
low-income population and of the urban environment
in general.
Further Reading
Books from ITDG Publishing
Municipal Solid Waste Management
Involving Micro- and Small Enterprises: Guidelines
for municipal managers
Hans Christian Haan, Adrian Coad and Inge Lardinois
£18, SKAT, 1998, ISBN: 9290493658
Designed for managers, engineers and administrators
who have some responsibility for municipal solid waste
management, and who are looking for ways to improve
the service or economise. The book draws extensively
on experiences from Latin America, South-east Asia
and Africa, and is highly relevant to middle- and
lower-income countries.
Solid Waste Management Directory
of English-Language Publications and Organisations
for Low- and Middle-income Countries
Compiled by Adrian Coad
£13.95, SKAT, 1998, ISBN: 390800182X
A catalogue of current information sources available
for solid waste management in low-income countries.
Each entry contains an abstract from the publication
and ordering information. Also includes a list of
some important organisations active in this field.
Books from the Water, Engineering
and Development Centre
Down to Earth: Solid waste disposal
for low-income countries
Mansoor Ali, Andrew Cotton and Ken Westlake
£19.95, WEDC, 1999, ISBN: 0 906055 66 0
This book presents the findings of a Department for
International Development (DFID) funded project. It
has been written for policy makers and professional
staff of urban government, development agencies and
non-government organizations in low-income countries.
The book aims to help improve the poor practices of
municipal solid waste management that prevail in many
low-income countries - a subject that has received
little attention compared with other aspects of infrastructure
such as water supply and transport. It is a complex
subject embracing waste collection, transfer, haulage
and disposal and its impacts are wide, including effects
on environmental health, municipal finance and management,
waste reuse, and informal sector employment.
This document is an output from
a project funded by the UK Department for International
Development (DFID) and the European Commission (EC)
for the benefit of developing countries. The views
expressed are not necessarily those of DFID or the
EC.
Acknowledgements
ITDG would like to thank Elizabeth
Ndhlovu at Urban INSAKA for providing the original
material on the C3F project.
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