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| Garbage dumped along roadside,Tunapuna |
Oooouchh! The stench! Like a billion
mongrels I must say! I had to cover my eyes and my nose! Can I escape this
smell and sight? It’s along the street corners for goodness sake! Where else
can I walk? Oh I have been saved by the bell, the road here is not usually as busy
as it is not the main road, and it is just a side street deep in the neighborhood.
As population growth is on the rise in
the East west corridor, spaces are harder to find as individuals find
themselves crunchy up in unsuitable environments just to find more attractive
jobs and a faster life. Tunapuna Municipality has been one of the many areas
that has seen such a growth; both in the economy and in the population size.
The area has a population of about 275,00 and by 2020 it
is projected to have about
380,000. The rapid growth in the country's
urban population calls for urgent attention in resource mobilization “to
reduce, reuse, recycle, or recover as much waste as possible before burning it
(and recovering the energy) or otherwise disposing of it”, as observed by
Rachel Kyte, World Bank's Vice President for Sustainable Development. It has
been stated that a city that cannot effectively manage its waste is rarely able
to manage more complex services such as health, education, or transportation.
It begs the question; can this possibly be what is taking place in Trinidad and
Tobago? This rapid increase in the
municipal population has put a strain on
the physical and social infrastructure evidenced by the problems as varied as lack of potable
water supply, in some areas and not only
as a Geographer but an Environmentalist, I would notice the indiscriminate cutting on the hillsides for development
purposes. A university town has evolved out of the area! A Municipality
well placed for the development of competitive industry, service and a skilled
professional workforce.
However, much of its potential can
remain unexploited in the absence of care socio-economic and physical planning.
According to a very recent report from the Government, 90% of the population is
served with garbage collection. Why then is there garbage here? Possibly it is
a part of the remaining unobserved 10%. Who can tell? Maybe the garbage truck is late? Maybe the residents
did not put the garbage out on time? This results in a health risk for the
local community. Not only is this an environmental and health issue, it is also
a social issue as many homeless people
search through the garbage to find themselves useful resources. Many are used
to sustain themselves and many are sold as a form of livelihood.
I therefore see sustainability as then
issue then! “Sustainability of waste management is key to providing an
effective service that satisfies the needs of the end users. One pillar of
sustainable solid waste management is strategic planning, and links to guidance
are provided. "As the policy report for Trinidad explains that waste from
most informal settlements in the area is not collected and this results in in
piles of informal dumpsites. What I suggest is that the local authority
develops innovative ways of reusing human waste with the aim of improving
sanitation services for the poor whilst restructuring the economics of
sanitation in the country (Kwarteng, 2011). What has also been working in other
Countries of the Global south is a policy framework to support the youth in
local communities to tap into opportunities in waste recycling to be
financially independent. One such example is in Ghana.
Honestly speaking however, the local
government will face challenges.
Insecure land tenure and threats of eviction can make sanitation a low priority. In communities such as those in the
inner most parts of Tunapuna, in which poor communities have insecure tenure,
the threat of eviction is so large and so urgent that communities are
pre-occupied with it and any outsider entering the community is perceived as
someone who may have more information or power to help provide secure tenure.
Often communities such as this one are targets of misinformation from private
developers or municipal staff. In this context, it can be difficult to focus communities
on sanitation unless they can link their organizing to securing tenure. For
successful development of any solid waste project, community participation in
collection, community consultation on cost recovery, and public participation
in siting and design of facilities is inherently essential to sustainability. These
suggestions are opportunities for the local authorities to take up in order to
give a face lift to their community. It is highly likely that although different
challenges will be met, projects like these can be successful as it was taken
in in Trinidad in areas such as Princes Town. These projects would also
contribute employment creation and unleashed the country's wealth stored in garbage,
especially in registering projects to benefit from the global carbon market. (Kwarteng
2011)
Reference
Boodan,
Shastri.2013. “Cabinet to consider CNG master plan” Trinidad Guardian ( March
15th 2013) Accessed April 2 2013
Kwarteng, Oduro. PRIVATE SECTOR INVOLVEMENT IN
URBAN SOLID WASTE COLLECTION. Ghana: www.crcpress.com, www.balkema.nl,
www.taylorandfrancis.co.uk,, 2011.
http://www.guardian.co.tt/letters/2011/03/21/urban-challenge-good-quality-water
http://guardian.co.tt/business/2013-03-14/cabinet-consider-cng-master-plan
Don't insult mongrels! ;)
ReplyDeleteNice blog post!