Municipal Solid Waste Collection Services in Rapidly Growing Cities of Tanzania

Abstract

Globally, rapid urban and population growth poses a huge problem for solid waste management (SWM), with developing countries’ fast-growing cities having more SWM challenges than industrialized countries. In Mbeya, Tanzania, a study to investigate the performance of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) collection services was carried out using a descriptive cross-sectional research design, and a mixed research approach. Questionnaires, interviews, field observations, and document reviews were used to gather information. Among the indicators used to evaluate the performance of Solid Waste (SW) collection services were the levels of community participation in SW collection, means of SW collection, coverage, amount of SW collected daily, facilities for SW collection and transportation, timely SW removal from collection points, and the ability to address SW collection challenges. Quantitative data was analysed using the IBM-SPSS software. Multiple response functions in SPSS were used to analyse questions with more than one answer, while content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The findings indicate that MSW collection services in Mbeya City are under-performing due to a number of factors, including the lack of vehicles and solid waste storage facilities, delays in removing solid waste from collection points, low city council budget allocation and disbursement for SWM activities, and the lack of willingness of the Mbeya City Council to address MSW collection challenges. It is thus concluded that adopting and enhancing the publicprivate partnership model in SWM is critical to addressing MSW collection difficulties in Tanzania’s rapidly growing cities.

Keywords: municipal, waste management, efficiency, performance, Mbeya, Tanzania