Solid Waste Management and Recycling

COLLECTION,TRANSPORTATION AND DISPOSAL IN NAIROBI 89

themselves were unhappy with disorganised open competition. They complained

that it led to a proliferation of ‘brief case’ operators who offered very low prices

but dumped waste indiscriminately, affecting the perception of the entire private

solid waste collection service. There was general agreement on the need to

develop and implement standards and guidelines for private solid waste collection

service. Private firms, in addition, complained about non-payment. Participants

concluded that private sector involvement needed formalisation and organisation

to facilitate access by private companies to the judicial system for resolution of

such problems. It was also felt that the private sector should be licensed to pro-

vide waste disposal services.

• The role of civil society (CBOs and RAs) was acknowledged but also the need to
  facilitate and strengthen its involvement.


• There was need to raise public awareness of solid waste issues and to study the
  influence of culture on waste generation and management in order to facilitate the
  design of effective solid waste collection interventions.

These stakeholder views seem to correspond very well with those expressed during
our household survey (table 4.5).

4.9. SYSTEM-WIDE CONCERNS

The above analysis was largely, albeit not exclusively, framed according to impacts of
solid waste collection efforts on the actors involved or the clients they serve. However,
it is also important to look beyond the micro-level and to highlight a number of
system-wide concerns. This is especially warranted from the perspective of urban
sustainable development. Several concerns stand out.

First of all, the low-income areas, principally slums and other unplanned settlements,
where about 60 percent of Nairobi residents live, do not or hardly receive any solid

Table 4.5. Solutions to Nairobi’s solid waste problem (as suggested by households)

Solution No. of households
suggesting

Percent of all

households

interviewed

Improvement of NCC
Involvement of communities
Formalisation of privatisation
Designation of special dumping place
Increase of government resources to NCC
Promotion of waste reuse and recycling
Total

37

34

22

18

11

5

127

29

26

17

14

9

4

99

Source: own survey, 1998.