Solid waste management crisis

I recently read an interview of the current Governor of Nairobi City County, Dr. Evans Kidero in the Standard Newspaper, Kenya and his responses in relation to solid waste management in the city left me wondering whether we are really in whole serious about promoting the health and progress of our county. The Governor alluded to the fact that their intervention regarding the solid waste management was stopped by the court after a petition by the private operators.

I have since reflected seriously about the relationship between the public and private sector regarding provision of essential services to our people, cities and urban areas in particular, seeing that about 50% of the world's population now live in urban areas. The public sector can actually give away almost every department to the private sector other than security and other identified critical sectors. However, I still think it is cheaper and practical to have the public sector departments handle critical service provision areas such as water and waste management so that the citizens have direct path for holding the government they pay tax to, to account.

The other aspect is whether the private sector would render better services because of profit motivation or whether they will bully the public over monopoly and indirect responsibility to account to the citizens. Indeed we need the private sector to take the lead because they are stimulated better by the need to have the economy grow as this leads to multiplier effect in their business. But I also believe that the public departments must cultivate a culture of excellence in service delivery by delegating effectively to more competent part of the public service, even if such individuals are currently in the back bench.

Back to solid waste and the craze we have seen in its operations in the city especially in the recent past, where it has made many millionaires; a fact that has proved to the world that millions are indeed in the dirt and filth that many abhor, I wish to raise the red flag. We indeed need to panic early regarding management of solid waste. Whether an enhanced public sector or private sector or a composite arrangement where each party plays his part in meeting the goal for a clean environment, I wish to trumpet this call to the players and other professionals in the solid waste management industry to begin round tables to kick start an elaborate plan for solid waste management for the counties (since waste management is devolved) and the country.

We have seen diverse solid waste components unique in characteristics arrive on the scene. E-waste is another big deal. We need to quickly develop an integrated solid waste management plan. We need to cushion our sewage treatment plants and other water and waste waster transmission infrastructure from waste ingress.

Another area to champion is the waste to energy innovations. There lies millions if not billions in the waste. We need to sensitize the communities and individuals regarding waste sorting and its benefits. We need to develop functioning transfer stations and protected and clean waste transportation vehicles. We need to save organic waste from being wasted. We can get gas through biogas generation systems from our market wastes. We may also fertilize our gardens from waste. We need to be educated about the reuse, recycle and reduction concepts of waste handling.

Again, we need to resolve the disputes on landfill sites acquisitions that have delayed many waste interventions in cities such as Nairobi and Kisumu. We need to adopt sanitary landfill technologies and harvest gas from old landfills. We need properly planned landfills and move away from dumping all waste in abandoned quarries which are now seeing residential developments mushrooming around them. We need to protect our citizens from devastating health effects of open dumpsites. We need to devise safety of men and women scavenging on waste. We can give them decent protection by sensitization and provision of adequate personal protective clothing and equipment. We can advise them on suitable diets for their conditions. We can safely decommission filled up landfills. Lets makes something beautiful out of them such as recreation facilities after ascertaining their safety from gas explosions and settlements.

Finally, let us panic early as the engineering profession and a country about solid waste management. Let us learn some homegrown control mechanisms such as recycling shopping bags and carrying own bags while shopping. Let us reduce waste whose characteristics are known to devastate us. Let us rise up to the call for a clean environment like Rwanda and other neighbours have done. We can make Nairobi clean again. We can make Kenya clean again without losing our profits. We can win this plastic bag and other carcinogenic waste menace to enable us advance our lifespan and create an environment for us and our children that's not only conducive for peace of mind, but also conducive for business and dignified living in our short stay on this beautiful planet.