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Community involvement in municipal solid waste management
Problem: Malawian cities are faced with critical environmental problems associated with municipal solid waste (MSW). Currently, millions of financial resources are spend on waste management and yet large quantities are still dumped indiscriminately in residential areas. This has resulted in health and sanitation problems, air pollution and other diseases. Despite that most of poor communities are not employed and waste recycling has been the source of employment especially for women, city authorities have not involved communities in waste recycling. There was no single activity at a large scale to compost solid waste for agriculture and commercial purposes.
Objectives:
- To reduce solid waste management problems at city level
- To empower communities in waste recycling activities
- To promote urban agriculture
- To increase household incomes for poor women
Donor:
(1) British High Commission Self help Fund supported Blantyre city activities with £6,000.00
(2) EU-Malawi, food security division supported programmes in Lilongwe city with another £6000.00
Stakeholders: Lilongwe and Blantyre city assembly, vendors and city cleaners, commercial nurseries
Specific locations
Blantyre: Bangwe, Kachere, Ndirande, Limbe markets
Lilongwe: Kawale 2, Area 23, Area 18, Area 25 market
Activities
(1) Identification of low-income women from poor communities
(2) Establishment of women clubs
(3) Training on waste collection, sorting, composting marketing, utilisation and group dynamics
(4) Opening of bank accounts
(5) Composting
(6) Market sanitation
Outcomes
(1) Number of trips to dumping sites from these markets was reduced by 60%
(2) Income of women was increased by 81% especially in Lilongwe city
(3) Women groups were formed and linked to commercial banks
(4) Commercial nurseries have ready sources for compost manure
(5) Markets were tidy and clean
(6) Employment was created
(7) Four Season, one of the largest commercial horticulture created market for women
Problems
Funds were not enough for full monitoring; as such beneficiaries were neglected in many cases. This affected their full participation.
Despite incorporating bonuses for each compost heap, women had no money for food in the initial stages and wanted to be paid as employees.
Land for undertaking the activities was a problem including sources of water and ideal compost shade. This brought problems between women, market workers and vendors.
Vendors started refused giving out wastes because they thought the women are selling wastes to the project.
Marketing of compost was a big problem especially in Blantyre as people did not know the product and there wasn’t enough funds for product promotion
Conclusion: Communities can contribute effectively to waste management and recycling, however, there is need to understand other pressing issues at household level especially sources of income for immediate problems such as food.
Acknowledgements: The British High Commission to Malawi and EU-Malawi for funding the programmes.
Messrs Sondo, Botomani, Kawiya, Miss Chikondi Msusa, Mrs Saileni, CEOs of both cities for their support and keen interest in the programme.
The media especially The Nation, ABC radio, TVM for featuring the project.
The then Minister responsible for Local Government, Honourable Chaponda for visiting the projects in Lilongwe and his support during his tenure.
Tim Mahoney for his interest, technical input and guidance through out the project.
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