QUESTION ONE: CASE STUDY
Title:Municipal Solid Waste Management in the Kanzo Metropolitan Area,Sikaman
Kanzois a metropolitan area in Sikaman, a least developed country inWest Africa, which has experienced rapid urbanisation over the pastsix decades. The population of Kanzo in 1965 was 45,000, whichtripled in two decades, and further reached 1.2 million in the year2005. The National Development Planning Council (NDPC),headquartered in Kanzo has estimated that the city’s populationsurpassed the threshold of 5 million in 2019. City authorities havebecome worried, considering the current rate of urbanisation peggedat 3 percent per annum. The population growth coupled with therapid expansion of the city has resulted in an urban sprawl anduncontrolled expansion from the adjourning municipalities. Also,there has been an increased crowding resulting in higher occupancyratios in existing housing units, and the infilling of vacant plotsin existing residential areas. According to the NDPC, over 70percent of the population of Kanzo live in low income, high densitypopulation areas which account for many of the slums in the cityand its peripheral environs.
Kanzogenerates over 3,000 tons of solid waste per day and only about 60percent is collected by the waste management organisationscontracted through a public private partnership (PPP) arrangement.Of these, the organic waste, made up of kitchen waste includingfood leftovers, rotten fruits, vegetables, leaves, crop residues,animal excreta and bones constitute 65-70% whiles industrial wastemade up of plastics, glass, metals, and paper account for theremaining 30-35%. The high organic and moisture contents left inthe open at prevailing high temperatures require frequent removals,which place additional burden on an over strained collectionsystem. Experts have warned that the delays and inefficiencies inthe solid waste collection system in Kanzo, is what has accountedfor the high incidence of cholera, typhoid fever, malaria, andother health hazards witnessed in the metropolis. Especially in lowincome areas where the waste is not segregated but mixed due toinadequate sanitation facilities, the problem becomes morecompounded.
Thelack of proper land use planning in Kanzo, also hinders effectivesanitation and waste management practices. As reported in the April9, 2019 edition of the Daily Mail Newspaper, the lack ofcomprehensive planning, the absence of planning controls, weekenforcement of bye-laws, indiscipline, difficulty to apply servicecharges, limited number of waste management organisations, and thelack of an adequate and well maintained infrastructure in theurban, and industrial development processes is responsible Kanzo’senvironmental problems. The publication further outlines that thepoor layouts, untarred and narrow nature of the road networksparticularly in slums, make it difficult for waste collectionvehicles to reach some parts of the city compound the situation.This uncontrolled urbanisation has resulted in an increase in theaverage travel distance to be covered by collection vehicles andadditional cost to waste management.
InJanuary, 2020, resident associations from all sub-metropolitanareas of Kanzo staged a mammoth demonstration at the city centreand presented a petition to the Office of the Mayor of Kanzo, Dr.E.M Hygiene, to express their concerns on the unsustainable mannerand poor solid waste management system, as well as theenvironmental risks associated with the practice.
REQUIRED:
i.Identify any four (4) major causes of the poor solid wastemanagement and sanitation problems
confronting the Kanzo Metropolitan Area.
