Policy responses to urban environmental problems: the case of solid and liquid waste management in the major urban centres of Tigray National Regional State

Abstract

The highly accelerated rates of growth that the cities and towns of the Tigray National Regional State witnessed in the recent past has been followed by a growing problem of urban and peri-urban environmental degradation in the region. Environmental deterioration owing to poor waste management does not only adversely affect human health and wellbeing but also tends to hold back the rates of growth of the urban and regional economy. The main purpose of this research has, therefore, been to examine the extent to which urban environmental problems in general and shortcomings in waste management issues in particular have achieved commensurate policy responses from regional and local authorities as the threats they posed to good living and working conditions intensified over the decades. In short, the status of environmental considerations at policy level and their implementation strategies and degree of execution at the grassroots level has been thoroughly assessed in this study. To this end, the researcher has primarily defined his research philosophy and approach as pragmatism and mixed methods, respectively. The convergence model of a mixed methods triangulation design has beem used. He employed semi-structured questionnaire, in-depth interview and observation as instruments of primary data collection. Household heads, personnel and decision makers were basic sources of data. Multi-stage sampling techniques were used to select sample units that involve both probability and non-probability sampling techniques. The researcher used descriptive statistical techniques and thematic content analysis techniques supported by SPSS and Atlas ti Programs to analyze the primary data. The main findings of the study revealed in many ways that urban liquid waste and solid waste management practices in the Tigray National Regional State is woefully far from adequate. The main indicators of the markedly low level of development of the region’s municipal waste management services include lack of appropriate liquid waste collection and treatment systems; limited access to and substandard private and public toilet services; lack of and poor management of liquid waste dumping sites; poor solid waste collection service delivery; very low collection coverage, and poorly managed landfills. The study has also shown that the responses of the region’s policy makers to such unquestionably severe problems are not worth mentioning. Nothing shows this better than the fact that the region has no municipal waste management policy. The other major weakness of the policy makers in this regard is their irresponsiveness to the deficient institutional capacities of the sector as a whole. What is more, despite its strategic importance, the 4Rs principle, as waste management approach, has also been overlooked by the local and regional administration. Accordingly, the researcher recommends that the government should work aggressively on implementing the 4Rs approach and strengthen the institutional and financial and material capacity of the relevant public institutions and MSEs involved in waste management activities.