Elsevier

Habitat International

Volume 30, Issue 4, December 2006, Pages 781-796
Habitat International

People as partners: Facilitating people's participation in public–private partnerships for solid waste management

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2005.09.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Cities in developing countries are facing a double dilemma. On one hand, the urban population is growing rapidly, causing a huge increase in demand for waste management services. On the other hand, the traditional public sector is failing to respond to the increased demand for service. The public sector is constrained by resource and institutional limitations. It is often proposed that the solution lies in private sector participation. It is expected that the private sector, with its dynamism and flexibility, may fill in the service delivery gaps by forming partnership with the public sector. However, a third tier—the people—is often overlooked in the service delivery framework. Citizens can contribute significantly to service delivery. They can support the private sector with payment of service charges. But more importantly, they can play an active role in improving accountability and service quality of both public and private sector. This radical shift in people's role, from passive service receivers to active service partners, however, may not occur endogenously. External help from facilitating agencies may enable the public and private sector to form partnership with people for better service delivery. This article examines the role of facilitating agencies in developing tripartite partnership for solid waste management service in Bangladesh. The key lessons learned are: a number of obstacles prevented spontaneous partnership among the public sector, private sector and people; facilitating agencies were able to overcome the obstacles to form partnership of the three; and, the tripartite arrangement resulted in higher accountability and better service delivery.

Introduction

Urbanization is now a global phenomenon. The world's urban population reached 2.9 billion in 2000 and is expected to rise to five billion by 2030. A great rural-to-urban demographic shift taking place throughout the world is fuelling this urban growth. As a result, the proportion between urban and rural population is steadily tilting towards urban. Only 29% of the world's population lived in urban areas in 1950; this proportion increased to 47% by 2000. By 2030, urban dwellers are projected to account for 61% of the world's population. At the current urban growth rate, the number of urban and rural dwellers in the world will become equal by 2007 (UN, 2004). Very soon, for the first time in history, more people will be living in urban areas than rural areas.

One of the consequences of the global urbanization is increasing volume of solid waste. The rising urban population is generating solid waste at an ever-faster rate. It was estimated that about 1.3 billion metric tons of municipal solid waste was generated globally in 1990 (Beede & Bloom, 1995). At present the yearly production of solid waste in the world may be about 1.6 billion metric tons. A considerable amount of money goes into managing such huge volume of solid waste. Asian countries alone spent about US$25 billion on solid waste management per year in the early 1990s; the figure is projected to rise to around US$50 billion by 2025 (Hoornweg & Thomas, 1999). These figures testify that solid waste management (SWM) has become a large, complex and costly service.

Cities in developed countries have financial resources and skills to adequately handle the cost and complexity of SWM. The problem is more acute in developing countries. This is because the rate of urbanization is faster in the developing countries. Almost all the population growth of the world between 2000 and 2030 is expected to be absorbed by the urban areas of the less developed regions (UN, 2004). There is a corresponding rapid increase in the generation of solid waste. At the same time, the municipalities in developing countries typically lack the financial resources and skills needed to cope with this crisis. The resulting decline in solid waste management service is becoming apparent in many developing countries. This raises the important issue of how to deliver quality service in the face of the financial and skill constraints of the public sector. Complacently overlooking the shortcomings of the public sector in delivering quality service poses a risk to public health. It is, therefore, imperative to search for alternatives to traditional service delivery mechanism to keep the cities in developing countries healthy and liveable.

It is often proposed that the solution lies in the private sector participation in delivering SWM services. Particularly, public–private partnership (PPP) is often viewed as a potential alternative to the traditional service delivery by the public sector alone. Under PPP arrangement, both public and private sector agencies share the responsibility in providing service. The arrangement can take many forms, but the common distinguishing feature is a shared governance structure and decision-making process. In such partnership, the private sector's dynamism is combined with the public sector's custodianship of public interest. In theory it seems like a natural and effortless merger of interests. In practice, attaining PPP, especially within the institutional constraints present in developing countries, is not easy.

Moreover, a third tier—the people—is often overlooked in the service delivery framework. Citizens can contribute significantly to service delivery. They can support private sector participation with payment of service charges. But more importantly, they can play an active role in improving accountability and service quality of both public and private sector. This radical shift in people's role, from passive service receivers to active service partners, however, may not occur endogenously.

External help from facilitating agencies may enable the public, and private sector to form partnership with people for better service delivery. This article examines the role of facilitating agencies in developing tripartite “public-private-people” partnership for SWM service in Bangladesh. The key lessons learned are: a number of obstacles prevented spontaneous partnership among the public sector, private sector and people; facilitating agencies were able to overcome the obstacles to form partnership of the three; and, the tripartite arrangement resulted in higher accountability and better service delivery.

Section snippets

Context of the study

This study was conducted in Bangladesh, a typical developing country in South Asia. The landmass of the country is about 147,570 km2. Bangladesh's present population of over 130 million (BBS, 2001) makes its population density one of highest in the world. Bangladesh is also one of the poorest countries with per capita GDP of about US$444 (Rahman, 2004). However, the country has registered impressive advancement in a number indicators: GDP increased by 60% during 1990s, income poverty declined by

Methodology

The objectives of the study were to find out: (1) the obstacles against partnership of the public sector, the private sector and the people for better solid waste management; (2) how the obstacles were overcome; and (3) the effect of the public–private–community partnership on SWM.

The authors used a mixed methodology in conducting the study employing in-depth interviews, semi-structured questionnaires, and observation. Interviews were held with key public and private sector staff, elected

Findings and discussion

The findings of the study are presented here along with discussions comparing the results with international experience.

The role of facilitating agencies in promoting public–private–people partnership

This study found the facilitating agencies as central to the formation of public–private–people partnership. The key roles of the facilitating agencies are presented here.

Conclusions

A few general conclusions on SWM service delivery can be drawn from the above specific observations on SWM service through public–private–people partnership. These are described below.

Firstly, this study found that it is possible to improve SWM service delivery through public–private partnership despite institutional and financial constraints present in developing countries. This observation is significant because total reform of the urban service agencies, particularly the public agencies, may

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    The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect that of the Loughborough University or the Water and Sanitation Program.

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