Prime
Kiteezi disaster: Key lessons in the disposal of urban waste
Solid waste management is a major problem in the cities of developing countries which are growing fast. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- The City of Dar es Salaam has in the past three decades provided a case study in waste management form many scholars. It may be recalled by those who were around then, that a major city clean up exercise had to be undertaken, in the 1990s, to save the City from sinking under the weight of uncollected and stinking waste.
Kiteezi may not be a household name in Tanzania, but it is a neighbourhood at the outskirts of the city of Kampala (Uganda), that gained worldwide notoriety, in May 2024, after a mountain of urban waste dumped haphazardly in the area, turned into a landslide that buried several nearby residences, mainly of low income households. Some 35 people lost their lives. Many more were injured. This became a happening of major concern to all those interested in Municipal Solid Waste management and environmental protection.
Solid waste management is a major problem in the cities of developing countries which are growing fast, in a situation of limited resources and institutional deficiencies. While per capita waste generation is relatively low, the total volume of municipal household waste is high, and growing in tandem with the continuing rapid urbanization. Furthermore, since the generation of municipal waste is primarily driven by daily activities, this presents a major challenge when it comes to waste reduction efforts.
Mountains of uncollected waste, a major environmental hazard, are common in cities of developing countries, as municipal authorities struggle under difficult conditions, to remove this waste. Waste collection and transportation is one thing; disposing of this waste is another. In most cases, waste is dumped at some site in the outskirts of a city, for as long as the site can take more waste and there is no pressure to move the dumping place, elsewhere. The NIMBY (Not in my backyard) syndrome, means that dumping places are usually a considerable distance from the city.
The City of Dar es Salaam has in the past three decades provided a case study in waste management form many scholars. It may be recalled by those who were around then, that a major city clean up exercise had to be undertaken, in the 1990s, to save the City from sinking under the weight of uncollected and stinking waste.
A peep into the history of waste disposal in the city of Dar es Salaam illustrates the problem of where and how to eventually dispose of this solid waste.
Waste generation in Dar es Salaam has more than tripled in the past two decades. The city generates nearly 4,500 tons of municipal solid waste per day, out of which, some 50-70 per cent gets collected by the city, which is a major feat compared to the situation in the 1990s. All the waste collected eventually ends up in the Pugu dumpsite known as Kinyamwezi, located nearly 35 km from the city centre.
It has not always been Kinyamwezi however. The Mchikichini area in Ilala, an open land in a planned residential area, served as a dumpsite for 19 years between 1935 and1954. Between 1954 and 1964 (10 years), an open land in Magomeni, close to the Msimbazi river valley at Jangwani River served as a dumpsite.
Tabata served as an open waste dumping place for nearly three decades between 1964 and 1991. Closing Tabata Dampo, was not easy. It took mass demonstrations, especially by the residents of Tabata, a neighbourhood that had grown substantially after the construction of the Port Access Road, for the Municipal authorities to abandon Tabata; without having an area in mind of where to go.
Sites that became waste dumping grounds after the closure of Tabata Dampo were: Kunduchi dumpsite (1991-1992); Vingunguti dumpsite (1992-2001); Mtoni dumpsite (2001-2007), a degraded land within unplanned residential area close to Indian Ocean; and Kigogo dumpsite (2007-2009), a degraded land within unplanned residential area close to Msimbazi river valley.
For the past 15 years since 2009, however, the dumping site for Dar’s waste has been Pugu Kinyamwezi, an open land within an unplanned residential area, which has grown rapidly. It was initially planned to be constructed as an engineered sanitary landfill site with all the pollution control mechanisms in place. However, the plans failed at the construction stage due to fund constraints and later, the area became an open dumping site, operated in an unscientific and haphazard manner, without any fencing, barrier layers, soil cover, or leachate and gas collection or treatment systems. Besides, the site has steep slopes, no access roads, and generates smoulders, puddles of leachate and other associated environmental hazards.
In the wake of the Kiteezi disaster, the World Bank has extended a loan to the Ugandan Government to deal with urban waste management (and roads). Externally designed solutions tend to be unsustainable. Much of the money goes into consultancies and missions, and local capacity to implement what is proposed is usually lacking.
Both Kiteezi and Kinyamwezi provide lessons which call for local solutions. Our cities need robust systems of waste management including recycling, promoting source separation, developing infrastructure to handle source-separated waste and establishing treatment plants for biodegradables and recyclables, community mobilization and operating the dumpsite scientifically.
Let Kinyamwezi not turn into another Kiteezi. Tanzania has trained enough experts, especially environmental engineers, to work out sustainable solutions for urban waste management.
