Innovative Ways for Solid Waste Management in Dar-Es-Salaam: Toward Stakeholder Partnerships

Provision of municipal services by local authorities alone cannot be sustained in most cities of the developing countries. Until early 1990s the Dar-es-Salaam City Authority collected less than 5% of the total refuse generated in the city per day. Limited public-sector resources accounted for such low performance. The Sustainable Dar-es-Salaam Project, through environmental planning and management, has been promoting participatory and partnership arrangements whereby working groups formulate strategies and prepare action plans to address critical environmental issues. As an output of the working groups, innovative ways of improving solid waste management in the city have included emergency cleanup campaigns, privatization, community involvement, disposal site management and waste recycling. We have been able to evaluate the performance of these innovative ways through participant observation, document reviews, official interviews, and a survey of householders and businesses. We conclude that these approaches have proved more effective in enhancing solid waste management in Dar-es-Salaam than the conventional approaches.