Water and Waste

The Water and Waste project is based on the premise that solid waste management should be integrated with water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for urban service delivery and monitoring in low and middle income countries. Although separate organisations are often responsible for WASH versus solid waste management, changing urban lifestyles mean that products like single use nappies and water sold in bottles or bags are becoming more widely consumed in poorer urban neighbourhoods. Such products generate solid waste management challenges. In this project, we are exploring ways of improving service delivery in two Sub-Saharan African cities, namely Kisumu in Kenya and Greater Accra, Ghana, through a joined-up approach to WASH and solid waste management. With our collaborators at VIRED International, University of Ghana, and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, we are looking at how household consumption surveys can be used to track consumption of such products among those lacking waste services. These surveys use questionnaires to record what people consume and the services that they use, potentially enabling audting of the waste generated. The project is also looking at ways of better tracking environmental waste in the two cities, through environmental waste surveys, mapping, and low-cost methods for identifying types of plastic waste. Finally, the project is studying the impacts of a programme for delivering safer drinking-water in Kisumu and reducing the entry of waste into the environment in Ghana. Studying these two programmes side-by-side may enable sharing of solutions between the WASH and waste management sectors. All these project elements thus aim to deliver better services by recognising the connections between waste management and water service delivery.