Sustainable Solutions to the Solid Waste Crisis
Thursday, May 22, 2008
By Francis W. Nyepon
Liberia faces enormous difficulties in sustaining solutions to its solid waste challenges. Solid waste management has been a persistent problem after 14 years of brutal civil war. As a result, the general health and quality of life of many Liberians have been reduced. Inadequate solid waste management (SWM) impacts negatively on morbidity and productivity throughout the country. More than 85% of all household, bio-hazardous and commercial wastes end up in unsanitary dumps, swamplands, vacant lots, or near riverbanks, and peri-urban slum settlements. This practice undermines sustainable community development, including issues relating to public health, hygiene, behavior and livelihood. The development of the entire solid waste sector in the country is virtually left to the judgment and leadership of the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), with a number of competing agencies playing pivotal overlapping roles and lacking a coherent national strategy. This stance doesn't cultivate sustainable solutions for the country. Five agencies have central roles in Liberia's solid waste sector, but many negate vitally important responsibilities, which determines the outcome, progress, and success of the sector; hence their relegation of duties to the MCC. Meanwhile, many low and medium income countries are vigorously addressing or coming to grip with their respective solid waste issues due to the enormous global concerns about the environment. For instance, many countries in the sub-region are implementing comprehensive, multifaceted action plans that harmonizes and engages the strengths of both the private and public sectors, while in Liberia, issues regarding politics, health, culture, education and resources are yet to be addressed in order for a successful national solid waste plan to be crafted and implemented. The national leadership needs to first comprehend the fact that attention of those at the top is needed in order for those at the middle and lower levels of government to seriously take a hard look at the sector, and make the necessary link to health, dignity, prosperity and sustainable community development. This would also have the kind of impact necessary to change mindset, customs and behaviors amongst subordinates who interact directly with the population at various levels. Henceforth, a national agenda regarding solid waste cannot be left solely to the fate of an extremely weak MCC, which lacks capacity and political will to resolve this crisis at the level it needs to be. For example, speak to any government official about the solid waste crisis, and he or she, without hesitation, will drive the conversation towards the doorstep of the MCC. This is done with the full knowledge that the MCC allows parochial and competing interests to dominate and cloud the issue surrounding a comprehensive and sustainable solid waste management (SWM) strategy. This author would argue that this approach has fundamentally increased the poverty ratio in urban and peri-urban communities by averting much needed improvement in environmental sanitation, hygiene, public health, education and employment. It promotes policies which fundamentally does not deal with the plight of rural people, or that of the urban poor and marginalized who make-up the majority of the population. One would submit however, that environmental factors are the predominant determinants of change in individuals and communities in Liberia. And this will have to be dealt with in a fundamental manner if any success is to be realized. For example, environmental factors must be viewed through the lens of public health, culture, behavior, and society in order to have the kinds of impact required to improve living standards in Liberia. The lack of adequate environmental sanitation policies invariably impacts national attempts to reduce poverty in a sustainable manner. Although the solid waste problem in Liberia is wide-ranging, it is very manageable. But, if issues surrounding environmental sanitation, and solid waste in particular are not dealt with sufficiently, they could hamper the governments Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). Effective solid waste management must be address in a comprehensive manner in order to elevate living standards, given its pivotal relationship to health, culture, education and politics. The PRS should ultimately utilize environmental sanitation as a baseline platform from which to spring board sustainable development or poverty reduction. For example, health and environmental sanitation should form the bedrock to improving productivity, dignity and livelihood. Anything to the contrary, would simply perpetuate misery and the status quo, including negatively effecting national morbidity rates. Finding sustainable solution to Liberia's solid waste challenges would enhance our post-conflict development efforts. However, this search for solutions must begin with analyzing, assessing and restructuring both short-term and long-term goals. A national solid waste management policy is needed in Liberia. Such a policy must deal with regulatory matters, incentives for local and municipal authorities to deliver better service; private sector involvement; cost recovery mechanisms; capacity-building of technical middle managers; effective collection, treatment, and disposal. First and foremost, this policy should deal with environmental education, outreach and a vigorous public awareness campaign. This must become the underlying principles through which solutions to better waste management practices is achieved. Such a strategy would promote wide-scale social change, which on the one hand would link the informal sector and peri-urban dwellers to micro-enterprises that generates employment and income, while on the other hand, it would bring into focus lapses in behavior and habit linked to hygiene caused by population density and years of war and dislocation. This opportunity would also open up new avenues for the country to completely privatize operational services and totally decentralize the sector. In addition, this would call into focus a concentration on regulatory reform to build national and regional capacity, while at the same time deal with potential and emerging environmental issues. Sustainable solutions for the solid waste sector in Liberia should also address issues of social change and community development. It should elevate the environment for better protection and enhance utilization of land. This would drive national efforts towards training and recruitment of capable and dedicated Liberians to manage and supervise a potentially decentralized system. With the country's growing population steadily increasing its consumption habits, Liberia stands at the brink of experiencing major challenges in managing the amount of wastes it generates. This is particularly evident in urban communities and peri-urban settlements, which are growing in density at astronomical levels. Hence, the primary goal of a comprehensive and effective waste management strategy must also deal with reducing generation rates, followed by reuse, composting and recycling. Neighborhoods and communities need to be encouraged to engage in waste minimization and communal collection because of our social characteristics. Local community-based organizations, like social and cultural clubs must be nudged gently into committed involvement in the design and implementation of collection and transfer systems management. Institutional arrangement needs to function and operate within an established policy framework that is executable. Enforcement, regulation and monitoring are paramount to any success of a sustainable solution to the solid waste management crisis in Liberia. Municipal ordinances and national laws have to be strengthened, while public health inspection is linked to enforcement and the criminal justice system to ensure environmental policies and programs are improved for sustainability. The Liberian environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should be given the responsibility, oversight and mandate to regulate the sector in order for clear lines of responsibility to be maintained, including demarcation of territory, and rules of engagement for private operators vis-à-vis the public sector oversight. An extremely strong and active private sector participation will provoke competition and thereby enhancing better services. Liberia's waste stream comprises mostly organics, hence composting should be looked at seriously. The construction of Liberia's first sanitary engineered landfill at Mount Barclay is a unique opportunity to introduce bioreactor waste treatment technology to the sector for the first time. This technology converts only degradable organic matter into useful fuel and reduces the environmental impact of organic wastes, and therefore not all the solid waste components are treated. The integration of this technology in the construction plans at Mount Barclay is important, especially if it links materials for recycling and composting with available markets abroad, and those associated with our agricultural based economy. This will integrate other components of the sector and deal with social, environmental and economic compatibilities as the dimensions of a sustainable waste management system in Liberia grows. Another area where sustainable solutions could be enhanced, is internship programs, which one Liberian operator has taken the lead in promoting. DUCOR Waste Management, a small private waste operator is actively engaged with US-based companies and accredited universities to expand internship opportunities for Liberian solid waste experts, environmentalists, and graduate students through exchange programs that enhances cultural and professional relationships. DUCOR Waste proactive initiative is intended to expand and broaden the knowledge base of Liberians in this multifaceted field. DUCOR's first exchange took place with the University of Massachusetts during the spring of 2008. Its operations manager visited and toured four states in northeastern United States interning in material handling, waste hauling, landfill management, recycling and composting as well as attending the 23rd annual International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In exchange, a graduate student in International Studies and Environmental & Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming will be interning with DUCOR this summer assisting the organization to set up management/organizational systems and community outreach programs. Funding these internships were provided by the Hunt Alternative Funds, the US State Department, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Wyoming including an ongoing small- skills project with the informal sector funded by the Swiss-based Collaborative Waste Group (CWG). About The Author: Francis Nyepon is managing partner of DUCOR Waste Management in Liberia. He is a policy analyst and vice chair of the Center for Security and Development Studies, and serves on several boards of humanitarian, environmental and human rights organizations in the United States and Liberia. He can be reached at francis.nyepon@Gmail.com
