16 ISA BAUD
acceptance in the eyes of the public. The fourth criterion aims to find out whether
mechanisms are put in place to monitor performances – in all three dimensions – and
sanctions are applied in case agreed norms – output criteria, health standards, labor
codes, environmental rules – are violated.
The third set of factors regard contributions to environmental health. The goals are:
- Greater effectiveness in achieving a clean urban environment;
- Minimize occupational health hazards for workers in SWM;
- Minimize environmental health hazards to man and animals related to the use of
waste in agriculture.
The contributions to a cleaner environment can be investigated at two levels, that of
the neighborhood where the activity takes place, and that of the city as a whole. From
the perspective of SWM, cleaner neighborhoods largely depend on the quality of
waste collection (service effectiveness), notably the frequency and the reliability of
the service. However, pollution produced by local industries dealing with waste mate-
rials (air, water, soil) or by collection vehicles (air) also has to be taken into account.
At city level, the contribution partnerships make to increasing spatial coverage of
collection services is of prime importance. The goal of reducing occupational health
hazards is quite obvious. It depends on the level of exposure to waste, especially to
dangerous fractions of waste, and can be mitigated by the use of appropriate safety
equipment. Finally, when waste – either decomposed or composted organic waste or
mixed waste – is applied in peri-urban agriculture, possible negative impacts on
animal health, soil conditions, and the quality of food crops also have to be considered.
1.6. TACKLING THE QUESTIONS RAISED
In order to tackle the questions raised in this study, a number of choices had to be made
and limitations introduced, which will be briefly discussed here.
To begin with, a number of specific research questions were formulated, which were
used as basis for the analysis across the different themes taken up. They were:
- Which are the main actors and partnerships found around the SWM activities tak-
ing place? - How does the regulatory framework (including policies) affect the SWM activi-
ties taking place? and - What contributions (outcomes) do the SWM activities by various actors and their
partnerships make to aspects of sustainable development?
The area of SWM includes a wide variety of activities, as indicated in a previous
section. Existing literature has often focussed on a specific area of concern, without
regard for the whole of the SWM system^14. However, in this study we wanted to move
beyond such sectional and thematic studies. The goal has been to consider three