Sustainable urban waste management: A community-based approach to involve all town inhabitants of Kombolcha town for a cleaner future

The city of Kombolcha in Ethiopia is facing a critical urban waste challenge due to several factors. Rapid population growth and the presence of budget limitations are the major among the list. As a town having more than 345 factory and small industries, there is a huge influx of young unemployed citizens to the town in search for job. In addition to the normal population growth this movement of youngsters produce uncontrolled rise in the number of inhabitants in the town. One of the major challenges faced as a result is the production of huge amount of waste in the town resulting in uncontrolled consequences. The town government is working at its maximum capacity to change such unbelievable chaos. Even if sanitation is the top most list in town’s agenda, the ever uncontrolled rise in the number of inhabitants and budget limitation, the waste management activity runs out of the control of the town’s management.

In recent assessment we realized that there is 144 m3/day production of waste in the town. The 11.02% allocated budget from the required budget for waste management by the town’s administration resulted in the accumulation of waste in every corner of the town. Infection related to uncontrolled waste as a consequence is becoming another challenge to the town’s inhabitants besides food insecurity. This challenge is affecting most importantly the most vulnerable member of the town’s community, children and women. Respiratory and other waste contamination related health problems are headaches for the town’s community as a result.

Because of the Administrivia’s recognized capacity of not handling this critical problem we designed this project to solve the problem from community participation perspective by using the moto “If every inhabitant handles his own waste our town will be clean”. The project aims to involve the entire population of Komblacha in the implementation of efficient waste management. This includes identifying waste sources, training community representatives, engaging unemployed youth and empowering women as key actors in waste management processes.