Nairobi County has a significant refuse collection crisis. That is why the present administration must take robust measures and address waste management concerns and the city’s growing filth problem.
There is urgent need to fix the challenges of waste collection and management the city has been experiencing for years. Make no mistake, the success of the present administration will ultimately depend on how it manages the issue of solid waste.
Provision of waste management system should not only be focused on the central business district and its neighbourhood but should extend to middle-income and low-income areas where the crisis is even more monumental.
Lamentably, there is explosion of solid waste in Nairobi, with mounds of garbage strewn everywhere. The county’s waste management system needs overhaul and reforms to ensure there are enough trucks to service all the 85 wards in the city.
Waste dumpsites have become the norm, particularly in high-density suburbs that cannot afford private refuse collection services. To bridge the existing gap, the county government should find affordable and sustainable ways of partnering with the private sector to collect garbage, especially in densely populated areas.
Nairobi has, over the years, grappled with waste management. But although it appears overwhelming, the problem can be fixed by embracing modern technology of dealing with waste, which populated cities around the world overuse.
All it needs is focused attention, good governance and implementation of systems that ensure changes outlive just one administration. There is need to dismantle cartels that have made waste management a behind-the-scenes thriving business over the years.
It should also implement a financial management plan where private citizens can openly participate in the sector. This would require a strong waste management policy backed by a legal and institutional framework that would ensure safety in handling the waste and create room for more accountability.
Holistic approach
According to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme reports, Nairobi City by-laws exhibit many limitations. Their enforcement is either lacking or weak, the organisational capacities are inadequate, and service structures suffer from chronical underfunding, with too few vehicles, poor equipment, and inadequate maintenance. There are hardly any containment systems for waste before transportation and disposal sites are unsecured, unmanned and in some cases non-existent.
The city is today choked with solid waste and the county government’s efforts to address the crisis have been unsuccessful because the government and partners have not embraced a holistic approach.
Nairobi City, with an estimated population of over 4.4 million, generates about 3,000 metric tonnes of solid waste daily. At least 20 per cent of this waste is plastic.
The capacity to manage all this waste effectively, rapid population growth, and myriad challenges in solid waste management increase environmental degradation.
Inadequate financing, limited appropriate infrastructure and technology, ineffective public sensitization and awareness, improper sanitary practices and limited good governance practices remain as some of the critical challenges that the management of solid waste faces.
The manner in which we handle this waste is associated with health risks to city dwellers who are likely to spend a lot of resources on treating diseases that can be avoided if the right waste management and public health measures were in place.
To overcome solid waste management issues, there are a wide range of requirements and suggested solutions, which include creation of incentives, private sector engagement, community participation, education and awareness, proper waste collection procedures and disposal sites, among others.
Masterplan
Promises to remove the Dandora dumpsite to a location far on the edge of the county and away from the people or turn it into a recycling plant have not materialised, for example.
The defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services and KenGen had signed a deal that was expected to see the latter establish a garbage powered electricity plant at the Dandora dumpsite. This followed a previous failed attempt of Management Energy Generation Project between Strabag and Nairobi County.
The solid waste management master plan needs to be fast-tracked, as it assessed Nairobi's problem and developed projects to ensure a sustainable system is in place.
-Obonyo is a public policy analyst.
