Waste Management

Waste Management (WM) is crucial not only in the sense of aesthetic importance but also in the healthy social development perspective. In developed countries, due to the high volume of their refuses, WM is being managed and handled technologically, and in fact it is also generating income for some segment of their society. In 3rd world countries, hosting a large population striving for their daily survival, WM is almost a 'neglected' agenda. The people in slums are used to living with wastes from the other sides of cities.
Though there may be some efforts, moslty from local authorities, there are also hurdles which aborted it without bearing fruit. The possible reasons could be

1. Economical constraints
In developing countries, the tax collection system isnot well developed as to supplement public services like Municipal Waste Management(MWM). In some cases, corruption may hamper proper implementation of 'public' services.
Economical constraint will at least block the following

• proper public WM trainings for the community
• efficient technologies adoption
• permanent system building for waste selection, recycling and removal etc

2. Donors' inacquaintance with local WM habits

There are efforts by international donors to help the developing countries in WM. Mostly, however, the efforts remain seasonal community mobilizations which don't last for long. One of the best potential reasons would be that donors lack the knowledge of the nature of local wastes. The local workers responsible for WM are also not getting enough skill how to deal with the technologies provided from donors.

3. Inconsistent and unorganized mobilization for WM

The local communities' awareness for managing wastes is very important to mobilize.In my country, there is a WM week, where local youngsters gone out to clean up their localities. However, since there is no reliable WM system built there may not be effective outputs which could last for long. Rather it would be better to support institutions working in WM, provided that the public is eager to support in terms of finance and materials etc.

4. City plans not considering waste management

City plans in developing nations may not consider waste management. This increases the cost of moving wastes, disposing or recycling etc. The increased cost of waste removal, decreases the incentive of the poor conmmunity to pay for WM.