Community Based Solid Waste Management in Luanda's Musseques: a Case Study

IN THE CITY of Luanda, 75 per cent of the population live in informal settlements known as musseques, under extremely unhealthy conditions with little or no services and few income opportunities. The solid waste problem is a permanent crisis as the accumulations of uncollected waste become breeding grounds for disease. Even clearing the backlog was beyond the capacity of the under-funded provincial sanitation company.

In 1997, Development Workshop implemented a pilot project to develop alternative models for managing solid waste in Luanda’s musseques. The project was part of an emergency intervention but specifically sought to ensure that local capacity was built up in the process so that the stakeholders involved could learn skills to address problems beyond the emergency intervention. This case study was prepared as part of an ongoing effort by Development Workshop to document and learn from its experiences in developing appropriate models and community-based approaches to the provision of basic services.

The pilot project focused on reducing the total amount of waste at source before it became refuse, through encouraging re-using what could be re-used and recycling what could be recycled. This project challenged the widely held notion in Luanda that trucks and containers were the only way to get rid of garbage and keep the musseques clean. Waste reduction and re-use were identified as viable strategies and a continuous removal system managed by the community was set up. By teaching people that sand is not waste but a useful commodity, the waste generation at source was reduced in weight by 50 per cent. In the unauthorized dump sites, a labour intensive process of sifting the backlog resulted in a reduction of 75-90 per cent in weight and collected sand which was used as infill material to improve roads. Labour was provided through a food-for-work programme that employed community members, and numerous potholes that filled with stagnant water during the rainy season were filled.

The local market expanded as the illegal dump site was cleared, increasing employment opportunities and generating revenues, particularly from permit fees which allowed the local government to keep the areas free from garbage. A new site was identified for a new collection depot and regular removal was arranged with a private company contracted by the provincial government.

This process allowed Luanda’s peri-urban poor who had been marginalized from political decision-making to have a forum to identify problems and solutions, and linked them with resources to start corrective actions. The positive results have renewed the confidence and willingness of both musseque residents and the government to address what has been viewed as an insurmountable problem. At the local level, this has contributed to the feeling of a growing number of people in the musseques that they have a right to have control over different aspects of their lives. At the same time, the project had to confront deep-rooted views on the “proper” methods of waste removal, the reluctance of residents to take action and scepticism about the government’s ability to sustain changes.

Solid waste management includes technical, institutional and social issues and the participation of all stakeholders needs to be analyzed. Even in an emergency intervention, promoting all stakeholders’ involvement is important so that capacities for longer-term development are developed.