COLLECTION,TRANSPORTATION AND DISPOSAL IN NAIROBI 87
old dumpsite. The proposed relocation is facing substantial opposition from within
and outside the LA.
4.7. CONTRIBUTIONS BY OTHER ACTORS TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The other actors discussed earlier on only play a very modest and usually indirect role
in solid waste collection. The subsequent remarks are confined to those aspects where
their support to the goals of urban sustainable development is most pronounced.
Informal actors
Informal actors contribute to the environmental components of sustainable develop-
ment of the city’s solid waste collection service by reducing the waste that has to be
disposed of. Moreover, they reduce the waste in critical areas (non-serviced
low-income areas), thereby contributing to social equity of service provision.
However, waste pickers and dealers throw away non-saleable items indiscriminately,
littering the areas in which they operate, and antagonise the NCC and private company
workers who have to collect the littered waste. Their contribution to public health is
therefore negative. Informal actors are also accused of stealing waste storage
containers
CBOs and NGOs
CBOs (and the NGOs that support them) have made individual and localised contri-
butions to sustainable development of the city’s solid waste collection service by
composting organic wastes, recovering inorganic waste materials, carrying out regular
environmental clean-ups, and educating the public on environment and waste manage-
ment. JICA (1998) cites improved public health, cleanliness of the environment and
supplementary income as the localised impacts of composting groups in Nairobi. The
Mathare Youth Sports Association organises weekly clean-ups in the Mathare slums.
Kitui Pumwani Integrated Project CBO succeeded in sensitising the community on the
need to separate waste at generation point (JICA, 1998). In aggregate terms, however,
the role of CBOs is still small. There are about 15 community based solid waste groups
with a total membership of only 10,300 that treat about 1 ton of municipal waste per
day only (JICA, 1998), or less than 0.1 percent of the total municipal waste generated.
Undugu Society of Kenya, a charitable NGO that has been involved in plastic recy-
cling and composting activities since 1981, has contributed to employment and
income generation for low income waste collectors and street children (Davis-Cole,
1996). The contribution of CBOs and NGOs is hampered by many factors as discussed
in one of the previous sections.