RE-USE PRACTICES AND ISSUES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 209
urban wastes in the U.K. Natural Resources Systems Programme in Kumasi, Ghana
and the levels of pathogens in the soil were not high and were not linked to the pattern
of local diseases. It is likely that higher risks apply to workers who handle and process
organic wastes, especially those coming from mixed municipal wastes than to
consumers of crops grown on waste-fed soils.
Drawing upon the considerable work done on the use of human excreta and wastewa-
ters in agriculture, international discussion has begun on the possible control measures
for waste reuse in urban and periurban agriculture (for instance crop selection, worker
education and protection, controlled disposal of hazardous and biomedical wastes)
(FAO, 2000; de Zeeuw and Lock, 2001; Blumenthal et al., 2001). The informality of
most urban organic solid waste reuse in Africa and Asia is the major challenge to
progress in reducing health risks (Furedy, 2001; Cointreau-Levine et al., 1998). If
cities moved to control the health risks from organic waste reuse, a substantial part of
the current informal, and even official, reuse practices would be curtailed. As the
editors of Urban Agriculture Magazine have emphasised, what is needed is a
multi-level approach that seeks to balance health risks against the benefits of waste
reuse (Lock and van Veenhuizen, 2001).
9.6. INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT
The institutional context or ‘framework’ for the management of urban organic solid
waste is usually seen as encompassing aspects such as who undertakes waste
processing (the city, private companies, NGOs) and whether there are specific policies
and regulations pertaining to the management of organic wastes. Brook and Davila go
further to suggest the inclusion of factors affecting farmers’ ability to buy compost or
use recommended control measures. So, land tenure systems and networks for dissem-
inating information to farmers and other actors should be examined (Brook and
Davila, 2000: 71, 136).
A broader issue is that of who legally owns the wastes generated in a city and how
competing claims for accessing wastes can be resolved. Most city governments will
assert that they own these resources but none have rules for considering competing
actual or potential uses. Whether a country or city has policies and programs that
undermine socially responsible reuse might also be considered under this rubric. The
preference given to impractical waste-to-energy schemes or pelletisation plants to the
neglect of assistance for composting is a barrier in some countries (Furedy and Doig,
2002).
Except where there are municipal compost plants and slaughterhouses supplying ferti-
lizer factories, there are few specific regulations for organic waste reuse in developing
countries. Urban and peri-urban farmers are not seen as stakeholders In other words, the
institutional context is not developed. This is particularly true for African countries.