-
Business Unusual: Possibilities for Delivering Cleanliness in Urban Settlements
- NUS Press Pte Ltd
- Chapter
- Additional Information
149 * PhDstudent,LeeKuanYewSchoolofPublicPolicy,NationalUniversity of Singapore. The author wishes to thank Prof. Mukul Asher for his comments. BusinessUnusual: PossibilitiesforDeliveringCleanlinessin UrbanSettlements R.SchuylerHouse* Effective provision of sanitation and municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is direly needed in burgeoning urban settlements where crowding, inadequate infrastructure, and insufficientwasteremovalmakeforhazardousliving,butprovision is lagging noticeably behind development goals. While sanitation and MSWM are typically considered related but separate waste managementactivities,latentopportunitiesexisttolinkthetwoin order to leverage economies of scope and scale.This conceptualized ‘combinedsanitation’tendersthepossibilityofsynergiesthatovercome the resource, access, and environmental constraints of low-capacity communities.Ifthesamesystems,technologies,andhumanresources can be used to educate stakeholders, convey wastes, and recapture value,communitiesmaybeabletoimplementwasteprogramsthat accruecostsavingsandgenerateincome.Thispaperreviewsprevious workonwastemanagementandemergingsolutionstoproposehow low-capacity municipalities might benefit from combined waste managementthatexploitssharedfunctionalprogramelements. 1. Introduction A view into the everyday lives of residents in urban slums across Asia, South America, and Africa, is often a picture tinged gray with 09IWPSchuyler.indd149 6/10/119:53:17AM R.SchuylerHouse 150 an insidious layer of muck. Indeed, effective provision of sanitation and municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is direly needed indevelopingmunicipalitiesworldwide,mostevidentlyinburgeoning slums,wherecrowding,inadequateinfrastructure,andinsufficientwaste removal make for hazardous conditions. But effective provision of sanitation—aMillenniumDevelopmentGoal—islaggingnoticeably despite its central importance to poverty alleviation, public health, primary education attainment, economic growth, and environmental sustainability. Many of the barriers to cleanliness in urban settlements are known, but effective solutions are just now emerging. A common thread trickling through the practitioner and scholarly community in reference to the search for solutions is the need to move beyond “business as usual”. But it is noticeable that most discussions about urbansanitationandwastemanagementremaincaughtonconventional modes of centralized collection that require huge capital expenditures andcoordinationcapabilitiesoutofreachoftheworld’spoorestareas. And the two separate components of cleanliness — sanitation and solid waste management — are locked into the silos of practice that sprung from a different era, in communities with different resources andphysicalcharacteristics. The framing of sanitation as a subsector of water supply and solidwastemanagementasanaltogetherdifferentproblemhasstalled our ability to identify alternatives that might make more sense for denseurbansettlements(andperhapsotherareasaswellaswemove towardsclosingwasteloops).Householdsolidwastemanagementand sanitation(removalofhumanexcreta,urine,andhouseholdgraywater) are traditionally considered related but separate activities under the umbrella of waste management, with sanitation tied organizationally to water supply. Latent opportunities exist, however, to link MSW andsanitationtoleverageeconomiesofscopeandscale.WhatIterm ‘combinedsanitation’tendersthepossibilityofleveragingsynergiesto overcomethesignificantresource,access,andenvironmentalconstraints oflow-capacityurbancommunities. Indeed,watersupplyandsanitationprovisionisshiftingintowhat White (2005) dubs the “Fourth Generation”, driven partially by the diffusion of Integrated Water Resource Management, wherein many sub-functions of service provision are decentralized while the overall 09IWPSchuyler.indd150 6/10/119:53:17AM [3.141.202.54] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 08:56 GMT) PossibilitiesforDeliveringCleanlinessinUrbanSettlements 151 strategyisunifiedunderamoreunified,integratedorganizationalbody. Themostprogressivewatersupplyandsanitationsystemsaremoving beyond the organizational structures typical of the past 150 years to moreintegrateddeliveryofservicesbylocallyappropriatetechnologies andinstitutions,withafocusontheinterrelatednessofwateruse,water resourcemanagement,andsanitation.ThisFourthGenerationnotion laysthegroundworkformyargumentregardingthescopeofsanitation policy—essentially,thatpractitionersandpolicymakersmustentertain inventiveideasabouthowweprovideoverallcleanlinessasapublicgood totheregionsmostinneed. Urbansettlementsrequiresimpleandserviceablesystemsofwaste removal, community-led action networks, and cross-sectoral collaboration to inspire behavioral change and overcome severe resource constraints.Iftheverysamesystems,technologies,andhumanresources canbeusedto...
Buy This Book in Print