مقاله انگلیسی استراتژی های کم هزینه برای بهبود مدیریت زباله های جامد شهری در کشورهای در حال توسعه
Abstract
Introduction
The Context
Methodology
Results and Discussion
Conclusions and Policy Implications
Appendix
References
Abstract
Many cities in developing countries lack adequate drainage and waste management infrastructure. Consequently, city residents face economic and health impacts from fooding and waterlogging, which are aggravated by solid waste infltrating and blocking drains. City governments have recourse to two strategies to address these problems: a) ‘hard’ infrastructure-related interventions through investment in the expansion of drainage and waste transportation networks; and/or, b) ‘soft’, low-cost behavioural interventions that encourage city residents to change waste disposal practices. This research examines whether behavioural interventions, such as information and awareness raising alongside provision of inexpensive street waste bins, can improve waste management in the city. We undertook a cluster randomized controlled trial study in Bharatpur, Nepal, where one group of households was treated with a soft, low-cost intervention (information and street waste bins) while the control group of households did not receive the intervention. We econometrically compared baseline indicators – perceived neighbourhood cleanliness, household waste disposal methods, and at-source waste segregation – from a pre-intervention survey with data from two rounds of post-intervention surveys. Results from analysing household panel data indicate that the intervention increased neighbourhood cleanliness and motivated the treated households to dispose their waste properly through waste collectors. The intervention, however, did not increase household waste segregation at source, which is possibly because of municipal waste collectors mixing segregated and non-segregated waste during collection. At-source segregation, a pre-requisite for efciently managing municipal solid waste, may improve if municipalities arrange to collect and manage degradable and nondegradable waste separately.
Introduction
Unplanned urbanization is one of the key challenges that developing countries are facing (Cohen 2006; UN-Habitat 2004). Many cities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) lack adequate basic infrastructure such as roads, sanitation and drainage networks and face a multitude of problems related to trafc congestion, air pollution, high crime rate and waste mismanagement (Nam and Pardo 2011). Rapid population growth, increased economic activities, and climate change make urban management even more complex, with frequent extreme weather conditions such as short-duration high-intensity rainfall events leading to waterlogging and fooding. Smart cities is an emergent new concept in LMICs that takes into consideration these developments and attempts to make cities more liveable (Alawadhi et al. 2012) by utilizing information and communication technologies and addressing infrastructure needs (Nam and Pardo 2011; Visvizi et al. 2018).