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Solid Waste Management

The provision of municipal solid waste services is an expensive and difficult problem for local authorities in developing counties. Municipal solid waste is typically defined to include: refuse from households, non-hazardous solid (not sludge or semi-solid) waste from industrial and commercial establishments, refuse from institutions (including nonpathogenic waste from hospitals), market waste, yard waste, and street sweepings. In most developing country cities, service coverage is low, resources are inadequate, and uncontrolled dumping is widespread. Poor waste collection and disposal practices have significant environmental and health impacts.

One solution being increasingly proposed to improve the solid waste management (SWM) service is to contract with the private sector on the basis that service efficiency and coverage can be improved and environmental protection enhanced. Private sector participation in SWM is a possible opportunity but not necessarily an answer for all of the problems. Important questions must be asked as to whether and how to involve the private sector in the provision of SWM services.

PPIAF has been supporting several developing country governments to tackle the issue of how to get the private sector involved in improving SWM services. PPIAF support helps create the policies, legislation, strategies, and reforms required to give confidence to the local and international private sector to invest in the solid waste sector.

Since inception, PPIAF has supported activities in a number of developing counties such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Central Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Philippines, Tunisia, Vietnam, and Zambia, to either identify the appropriate public-private partnership (PPP) options, create the enabling environment to attract private sector participation, or provide transaction support to implement SWM projects.

Below are some examples of activities PPIAF has supported. Final reports are included when available.

  • The government of Maldives engaged the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as lead transaction advisor in August 2009 to assist in the developing, structuring, and implementing of waste management services in Maldives though private sector participation. PPIAF funding provided support for the IFC to carry out detailed technical and legal due diligence for to the project, designing an optimal transaction structure for implementation under a PPP mode, and managing the bid process. The technical and legal due diligence works were successfully completed and presented to the government in a Strategic Options Report in February 2010. Based on the submission the government accepted to implement the pilot waste management project in Malé and three surrounding islands of Villingili, Huluhullé, and Hulhumalé. The private concessionaire would be responsible for providing integrated waste management services (collection, transportation, segregation, processing, and sanitary disposal) in these selected islands. IFC success story summarizing this activity is available below.

    Following the completion of the first phase the government requested additional funding from PPIAF to develop and implement a communication plan to increase awareness, improve knowledge, understand stakeholder concern so that these could be addressed, and strive for broad based support for the project. This work is ongoing.
     
  • In 2002 PPIAF provided support to the government of Ethiopia in the formulation of a strategy for private sector involvement in municipal SWM. A comprehensive diagnosis of the solid waste sector, including generation, collection, storage, transport, and disposal of waste was undertaken. These findings were presented at four stakeholder workshops on private sector participation in the sector. For more information please refer to the impact story below on "PPIAF Supports Private Sector Participation in the Solid Waste Sector in Ethiopia."
     
  • In 2009 the government of Djibouti requested PPIAF funding to design a solid waste collection system for Quartier 7 that would be based on community participation and education; collection by micro-enterprises; and use of appropriate technology given the physical constraints of the neighborhood. This support explored four options for SWM and resulted in a consensus on the appropriateness of testing, as a pilot project, pre-collection of solid waste using micro-trucks managed by micro-enterprises to carry the waste to a transfer station to be built and managed by the Office de la Voirie de Djibouti (OVD). From this transfer station the waste is transported by OVD’s trucks to the disposal facility. The full report in French is available below "Mission d’assistance à la définition d’un système de gestion des déchets pour le Quartier 7 de la ville de Djibouti."

    PPIAF is providing additional funding to the government of Djibouti to prepare technical, legal, and economic analysis and due diligence as well as the design of an awareness campaign.