A Knowledge-Base on Waste Management

through Action Research: The Case of Busia,

Uganda
Jakob Lederer, Paul Hans Brunner, Johann Fellner. IWR – TU Vienna
Jeninah Karungi, Francis Ogwang. Makerere University
Amosia Ongatai. Youth Environment Service

CONTACT

Name: Jakob Lederer

E-mail: j.lederer@iwa.tuwien.ac.at

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is a major challenge for urban regions in developing countries and its
management requires good knowledge among local stakeholders. This knowledge does not always
exist, impairing MSW management decision making and planning. In this paper we present the re-
sults of the research project UGoS on municipal solid waste knowledge in the Ugandan town of
Busia. The research questions are on the knowledge required for sound MSW management, and
how it can be established and disseminated among relevant stakeholders.

INTRODUCTION

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is a major challenge for urban regions in developing countries and its
management requires good knowledge among local stakeholders. This also applies to the Eastern-
Ugandan Municipality of Busia.

As a busy commercial centre and border town to Kenya, Busia’s resident population increased sig-
nificantly at around 25% during the last 10 years. The corresponding increased quantity of MSW
from households and other establishments is a growing environmental and public health problem in
Busia town.

Before the year of 2005, MSW was not formally collected, but illegally dumped and burned. In
2006, formal MSW collection was introduced, at first run by the NGO Youth Environmental Ser-
vice (YES), and then taken over by Busia Town Council (BTC). Currently, about half of MSW
generated is collected by BTC’s waste workers. The MSW is then transported with a lorry to the
city boundaries and disposed in open dumps. Beside the formal solid waste collection and dumping,
illegal activities such as burning remain. A not-known amount of MSW is informal recycled or re-
used.

Actually, Busia’s MSW management system expects dramatic changes. The town benefits from a
composting program financed and/or implemented by external donors, like the Worldbank and the
Ugandan National Environmental Management Agency (NEMA). The aim of this program is to
improve MSW management through composting of bio-waste and thereby reducing greenhouse gas
emissions (Worldbank 2008, NEMA undated). Thus, Busia will receive a composting plant, and
collection equipment. However, experiences from other town in Uganda benefitting from this pro-
gram suggest that the program may lead, next to the positive effects on waste management infra-
structure, to some new challenges.

Regarding the existing and new solid waste management challenges in Busia formulated before,
following research questions are targeted:

1. What knowledge on waste is necessary to develop strategies and set priorities on its man-
agement?
2. How can this knowledge be created?
3. How can this knowledge be disseminated among the users of knowledge?

The over-all research objective is to establish a user-oriented knowledge-base for goal-oriented sol-
id waste management in Busia.

Methods and Methodology

Research on solid waste management has been criticized to ignore the demand of the stakeholders
involved in (Traore et al. 2003; Achankeng 2004; Ahmed and Ali 2004; Ali 2010). To overcome
this problem, authors suggest to actively involve local stakeholders in the research, as they are the
later users of the knowledge to be generated.

Users are seen twofold within the scope of this research. On one hand, they are the ones who re-
quire and will benefit from the knowledge established in this research. On the other hand, they are
also seen as carriers and thus sources of knowledge.

Stakeholders can be single individuals, units of several individuals, or organisations, which are ei-
ther directly affected and/or have effect on the outcome of a project (Snel and Ali 1999; Varvasov-
sky and Brugha 200). In this proposal, the terms users and stakeholders are put on the same level.

User-focus means that the aspired results of the research are prepared in a way so that users can
benefit from it, meaning their demand can be satisfied. To achieve this condition, participation and
involvement of users is a key aspect in this research.

To fulfill the claim of user-orientation, the research framework applied is action research (AR),
aiming to generate knowledge of local stakeholders (municipal/local authorities, NGOs, community
members, private persons) through active involvement in the research and close interaction with the
researchers (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Action research

Within the action research process, various methods of MSW management system description and
analysis are applied, such as material flow analysis (MFA), full cost accounting (FCA), and stake-
holder analysis (SA) (EPA 1979; Brunner and Rechberger 2004; Snel and Ali 1999; Varvasovsky
and Brugha 200). Data was gathered through interviews, surveys, waste sampling. Subsequently,
scenarios for future MSW management are designed, considering planned interventions through
municipal decision makers (Figure 2).

Figure 2 The general research approach in UGoS

RESULTS

Research Phase I
The result of a questionnaire survey in 2010 show that 50% of MSW is formally disposed by waste
generators and collected by authorities. Local farmers receive the collected wastes as soil condition-
er, 15% domestically re-used/recycled and 35% illegally disposed. In total, Busia spent 28,000 € for
MSW management (90% collection and 10% street sweeping). Revenues are only collected from
markets (10% cost coverage). The SA shows that MSW management is driven by public health
concerns and authorities strive to extend the MSW collection, challenged by lack of equipment.
Local stakeholders (community members) demand improvement of waste collection, but many
claim that authorities should first focus on human waste rather than MSW. At the same time, will-
ingness to actively participate in MSW management improvement is quite high among community
members. Among other stakeholders, farmers play the most important role, receiving bulk of MSW
collected improve their poor soils, appreciating waste as soil conditioner, but being concerned about
the health hazard of MSW (broken glass and injection needles).
 Waste disposal practice
50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
collection into trench dumping burning other don't know
center

Figure 3 Example for result of the first questionnaire survey with households – waste disposal practice

Material/financial flows will change dramatically in the near future as Busia will benefit from a
CDM project, receiving MSW collection and composting equipment in 2012. The intended exten-
sion of MSW collection stands vis-à-vis an increase of running costs by a factor of two. As authori-
ties/politicians do not want to collect further revenues, the only possible sources of income will
come from the CDM project and compost selling. CDM revenues will not flow before 2017, and
until then compost selling will be the only potential source of MSW management income. Inter-
views with other Ugandan towns that have already started composting shows that the compost mar-
ket in Uganda is small, leaving authorities with almost no revenues from compost selling. While the
current use of MSW by farmers suggest that Busia finds it easier to sell its compost, farmers are
only willing to pay for a product with high nutrient/carbon and low glass/needles content.

Figure 4 System description: MFA model solid waste management in Busia 2010
Research Phase II
Based on the results of research phase I, stakeholders initially involved in the research (Busia Mu-
nicipal Council, NGO Youth Environment Service) decided on two work packages to be covered in
the second research phase, namely 1) improved waste collection for a hygienic environment in
Busia’s villages; and 2) organic waste management and the use of organic waste in agriculture. Ad-
ditionally, TU Vienna and Makerere University used the data collected by local project partners to
analyse the waste management system by applying MFA, FCA, and SA. As the second is dealt-with
in a separate poster presentation, this paper only presents the systems analysis and the waste collec-
tion for a hygienic environment.

Action Research to Improve Waste Collection in Town

The communities contacted in the research formed committees of concerned community members
keen to improve the situation regarding waste management in Busia. Therefore, the committees
defined problems and suggested various actions, amongst them the implementation of by-laws, sen-
sitization of the community, closing of old and installation of new collection centres, drafting of
collection routes for the collection vehicle, and management of collection centres. While some of
the activities proofed to be successful, others were not. A reflection of the implemented activities
resulted in re-formulated actions, which included stronger institutional support by local and munici-
pal authorities and the NGO partner.

Figure 5 Example for an action research cycle, village 1, collection centre

Figure 6 Communal collection centre at village 1 in October 2010 (left) and February 2011 (right)
Action Research with Farmers on the Use of Compost and Organic Waste in Agriculture
Five farmer groups each with 10 members from villages around Busia participated in the research,
individually applying compost retrieved from another town in Uganda on their, using the same
compost for setting-up demonstration gardens, and giving information on their agricultural practic-
es, but also feedback on the compost utilization. Makerere University supervised the action. Results
show that compost is quite unknown among participating farmers. Therefore, the utilization of ma-
nure and raw solid waste from Busia is quite common. Mineral fertilizers are hardly applied. If
compared to the price of other fertilizers and soil amendments, the price charged in Uganda for
compost is way too high, but therefore, the quality of the compost, particularly regarding contraries
(injection needles, broken glass, and dust), is too low. However, farmers still certify the compost
having quite good quality, and are willing to acquire compost when it is produced and sold to them.

Figure 7 Price for organic fertilizers and willingness to pay for compost

System Analysis
The MFA shows that only half of the wastes are disposed to the formal collection. The infrequency
of the collection results in big losses during waste storage at collection centres, which can be up to
eight weeks and longer. This leads not only to an impair of residents staying close to collection cen-
tres, but also to enhanced littering, crude dumping, and burning of wastes. Material recycling is
conducted informally, particularly for domestic re-utilizable materials (plastic bottles as vessels,
plastic and paper for burning, charcoal pieces as fuel), but also sold to the market (plastic bottles as
raw-materials sold to the market or vessels, metals sold to the market). Interestingly, the market for
collecting plastic bottles and selling them to Kampala (Uganda’s capital) has emerged during the
time of the research.
 Figure 8 Material flows solid waste management in Busia 2011 in tons per year (t/a), 3 significant digits

The costs of waste management in Busia are quite high, particularly compared to other towns in
Uganda. If the costs for waste collection per ton remain at this height, Busia will face serious prob-
lems when receiving the new collection and composting equipment. If Busia reaches a 95% collec-
tion rate, compost most of the wastes, but sell only a small amount, as has been observed in other
towns in Uganda, the costs may double compared to nowadays (scenario 1a). If Busia manages to
sell a bigger amount of compost, the increase will be smaller (scenario 1b). Finally, if Busia will
maintain the waste collection at a low level, but compost the collected waste, mostly market wastes,
and sells most of the compost produced, it will be financially best of. However, the amount of popu-
lation served by a sufficient waste collection will then not increase significantly.

Figure 9 Comparison net costs for all scenarios and projection of status quo as share of the Municipal budget in
2013

Stakeholder Analysis
BMC and YES have introduced waste collection to Busia, which has been a big step towards im-
provement of hygiene, but also a consequence of urban population growth. Community members
are generally quite satisfied that there is a waste collection at all, but demand higher collection fre-
quency and an extension of waste collection. Though BMC states that the introduction of collection
fees will never be accepted by the community, there are already 30% of community members pay-
ing somebody for informal door-to-door collection, and the willingness to pay for such a service is
beyond 60%. However, that might not be necessary, as the current budget might be more or less
sufficient for future waste collection, but only if the cost efficiency is increased. Farmers are quite
keen to receive, not only compost, but also waste to improve their yields. Therefore, some good
information system is required. Informal waste collection is somehow seen divided. While some
community members appreciate the service provided by them, BMC is quite keen to abolish infor-
mal waste collection. The question on who will then provide the service is tackled by YES in a new
project that aims to implement door-to-door collection with push-cars and bicycle rickshaws. How-
ever, the social question on what will happen to the nowadays informal waste collectors, which are
mostly marginalized groups (street children and homeless people), remains unanswered by both,
NGOs and municipal authorities. Besides, some unclear distribution of responsibilities among dif-
ferent stakeholders, particularly within the different levels of the local government system, has been
observed, not only in this research, but also others (cp. Okot-Okumu and Nyenje 2011).

CONCLUSION

The research has shown quite a lot of concerns of local communities on waste management, but
also high willingness of community members to get involved in activities that may improve the
situation. Municipal authorities, willing to improve the situation, also by the help of international
and national organizations, face some information deficit when project which should assist them in
achieving the objectives of sound solid waste management, are on the way. Particularly the impact
on waste management expenditures are an issue therein. Finally, the project has shown that the in-
volvement of a fair number of stakeholders is required, not only to improve the quality of the re-
search, but also to achieve a certain number of potential knowledge carriers which can later make
use of the knowledge generated.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was supported by the Commission of Development Studies at the Austrian Exchange
Service (www.kef-online.at), the International Solid Waste Association (www.iswa.org), the Alt-
stoffrecycling Austria (www.ara.at), and Vienna University of Technology (www.tuwien.ac.at).

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