Michael Oloko

Developing and testing the urban sustainable development goal’s targets and indicators – a five-city study

The campaign for the inclusion of a specifically urban goal within the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was challenging. Numerous divergent interests were involved, while urban areas worldwide are also extremely heterogeneous. It was essential to minimize the number of targets and indicators while still capturing critical urban dimensions relevant to human development. It was also essential to test the targets and indicators. This paper reports the findings of a unique comparative pilot project involving co-production between researchers and local authority officials in five diverse secondary and intermediate cities: Bangalore (Bengaluru), India; Cape Town, South Africa; Gothenburg, Sweden; Greater Manchester, United Kingdom; and Kisumu, Kenya. Each city faced problems in providing all the data required, and each also proposed various changes to maximize the local relevance of particular targets and indicators. This reality check provided invaluable inputs to the process of finalizing the urban SDG prior to the formal announcement of the entire SDG set by the UN Secretary-General in late September 2015.

Engaging with and measuring informality in the proposed Urban Sustainable Development Goal

A unique project by Mistra Urban Futures to test the draft targets and indicators of the proposed Urban Sustainable Development Goal (Goal 11) in five diverse cities in Europe, Africa, and Asia revealed numerous complexities and differences in data availability, potential accessibility, and relevance. Deploying the findings from Kisumu and Cape Town, we highlight the particular challenges posed by widespread urban informality. Similar issues apply across the global South. The targets and indicators rely on official/formal data, which are often of questionable reliability and exclude unregulated activities. The particularly problematic conceptualization of the slum/informal settlements indicator is examined in depth, along with indicators on transport and waste management.

Socio-environmental entrepreneurship and the provision of critical services in informal settlements

This paper contributes to the understanding of processes by which small-scale entrepreneurs who provide household waste collection in informal settlements succeed in formalized co-production of such services. The paper draws on the social and solidarity economy and social and environmental entrepreneurship theoretical frameworks, which offer complementary understandings of diverse strategies to tackle everyday challenges. Two questions are addressed: How do informal waste collection initiatives get established, succeed and grow? What are the implications of this transition for the entrepreneurs themselves, the communities, the environmental governance system and the scholarship? A case study is presented, based on three waste picker entrepreneurs in Kisumu, Kenya, who have consolidated and expanded their operations in informal settlements but also extended social and environmental activities into formal settlements. The paper demonstrates how initiatives, born as community-based organizations, become successful social micro-enterprises, driven by a desire to address socio-environmental challenges in their neighbourhoods.

Energy recovery from municipal solid waste

ABSTRACT Kisumu City is fast urbanizing. Implying that challenges posed by improper management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) are increasing at both Kibuye market and Kachok dumpsite, within the City. This is a great hazard to inhabitants in terms of health and environment. This far, the City has been concentrating on addressing the issue of inadequate clean water supply, water hyacinth menace, sewerage management, to mention but a few. No special attention has been given to recover energy from MSW. This is very important as it will help to tackle the ever increasing volumes of MSW both at source of generation (Kibuye market) and disposal (Kachok dumpsite) and thus relieve the need for more land spaces for waste disposal, lessen potential methane emission sites and even provide cheap energy to the household(s), available market (s), and City at large. This paper discusses the potential of recovering energy using available techniques/technologies based on characteristics of MSW in Kisumu City as well as related economics. Various literature reviews, interview-based questionnaire, field survey observations provide evidence for these. The economics of embracing briquetting/palletization technology are briefly reviewed; success of briquetting solely relies on partnering amongst all key stakeholders. Also, this review offers any would-be investor(s) and/or researcher valuable information needed to invest in other waste management practices and/or glaring information gap that requires further interrogation in form of research.

Bridging Weak Links of Solid Waste Management in Informal Settlements

Many cities in the global South suffer from vast inadequacies and deficiencies in their solid waste management. In the city of Kisumu in Kenya, waste management is fragmented and insufficient with most household waste remaining uncollected. Solid waste enters and leaves public space through an intricate web of connected, mostly informal, actions. This article scrutinizes waste management of informal settlements, based on the case of Kisumu, to identify weak links in waste management chains and find neighborhood responses to bridge these gaps. Systems theory and action net theory support our analysis to understand the actions, actors, and processes associated with waste and its management. We use qualitative data from fieldwork and hands on engagement in waste management in Kisumu. Our main conclusion is that new waste initiatives should build on existing waste management practices already being performed within informal settlements by waste scavengers, waste pickers, waste entrepreneurs, and community-based organizations.

Kachok Dumpsite Characteristics and Its Future – A Third Kenyan City Perspective

47 Counties inclusive of Kisumu were created as regional administrative units by the Kenyan constitution 2010. The County Government immediately redirected Solid Wastes from other county’s townships to be disposed at the existing 2.73 ha Kachok dumpsite. However, the disposal of solid wastes by observation from collection, transportation to dumping has been having challenges. A compelling aim to re-assess the dumpsite arose to determine if it satisfies minimum siting standards, characteristics and potential for the County. Findings show the dump is not properly sited and is at 10% or lower collection rate of the city’s wastes since the 1970’s, it is full beyond capacity/potential and a nuisance. The rate indicates need for improved planning, regulation and enforcement for the city and the county. The average dump composition in the order of plastics, glasses and organic matter is 34.7, 13.8 and 51.8% and weight per volume that varied by depth/age with an estimated volume of 6853 m3. It has high carbon content (>2%) and heavy metals have not found their way into the groundwater system. Presence of NO3 though shows groundwater pollution is taking place. Air quality parameters exhibited similar trends with higher concentrations over the dumpsite, reducing outward with the nearby sensitive receptors impacted. The dumpsite should be relocated with caution and use of its organic contents directed to agriculture. The other possible uses such as extraction of energy and recycling of waste contents may need review as dumps depository potential is outlived.