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Institute
The unprecedented population growth, rising in community living standard and urbanization have left most municipalities in African Countries grappling to find viable solutions to their waste management problems. Improper waste management is attributed to systemic failure of policy makers and municipal authorities to identify the most sustainable approach to dealing with it so as to meet environmental and socio-economic aspirations. This study aims to find a new approach involving people of different social, ethnic, gender and religious groups in the reconstruction of local waste management systems creating typical win-win situations. The main objectives of this research are as follows: • Investigates how gender affects solid waste planning and the influence of different social status of the community especially the role of households. • Examines the level of community involvement in solid waste management in terms of policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. The case study area Cameroon “Africa in miniature” is used to highlight waste management burdens and challenges which are characteristic of most African cities. This research sought to answer one principal question: Can top-down approaches in municipal solid waste management be successful without sufficient community engagement and sense of ownership? Top-down approaches where considered in terms of policies and technology transfer. An integrated methodology was used involving a desk study, field survey for situation analysis, household questionnaire survey, habitat scale, “waste to cash seminar” for stakeholders’ analysis and focus group discussion. The outcome of this holistic investigation reveals a strong concern for a clean environment thus citizens’ participation and awareness creation is so vital to take the message to grass roots level. Municipal waste collection services are more effective when they work in collaboration with community led primary collection from households. It is clear that where a reliable service can be guaranteed communities are willing to pay for it. Building the capacity of communities implies empowering community to sustainably manage their waste. An integration of several factors is vital to increase sustainability. However, this does not undermine the fact that the best implementation in some situations is some sort of a middle ground between Top-down and Bottom-up.