City-Level Decoupling-Case Studies

the design team’s ability to find innovative solutions and required time-consuming reports. 81 The act was a particular constraint on the development of the clean development mechanism project and on the sale of carbon credits. 82 The rate at which the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund agreed to buy the Emission Reductions was in retrospect too low to make the project financially sustainable, and the UN’s clean development mechanism compliance process was also 'exhausting'. 83 South Africa’s shortage of technical skills required to design and maintain landfills and gas-to-electricity plants also proved to be a challenge. 84 Despite these obstacles and disappointments, a committed and enduring management team and a dedicated monitoring committee have meant that the Mariannhill Landfill Site has achieved its key aims. 85 The willingness of the municipal engineers to think outside the box, and persevere despite the ‘red tape' have been vital to the project’s success. Perhaps Mariannhill’s greatest value is the model it has provided for other landfills to build upon, and other sites such as the nearby Bisasar Road are already improving on its successes in gas-to-electricity production. 86 From this case study, it is clear that managerial commitment and a community-driven demand for accountability are critical to the success of sustainable urban infrastructure.

11. Towards zero waste neighbourhoods in Kampala, Uganda

By Dr. Shuaib Lwasa (Lecturer, School of Forestry, Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Makerere University)

Like many other cities of the sub-Saharan Africa, Kampala is beset by urban environmental management challenges. Solid waste management remains daunting due to the financial, technical, institutional and organizational requirements to ensure adequacy. 87 Although an estimated 40% of the city’s annual budget is committed to managing wastes, less than 45% of the wastes generated are collected and disposed off at the landfill. 88 Approximately 50% of waste generated is left decomposing within the city as a result of indiscriminate dumping in neighbourhoods, leading to problems relating to health, ecological distress and liveability of neighbourhoods. In Kampala, 75% of wastes generated are organic and three quarters of these are peelings from bananas, potatoes, cassava and sweet potatoes. With increasing biomass flows into the city, rotting peels accumulate and cause pollution in neighbourhoods or leachates at landfills. 89 Against this backdrop, a multi-institutional Action Research project was started under the IDRC- Canada Focus Cities Research Initiative to build urban ecological resilience and address poverty by changing the way in which wastes are managed in the city and its hinterlands. In 2006, Kampala city council partnered with a pilot community of Kasubi-Kawaala, Makerere University and civil society organizations on a program called 'Sustainable Neighbourhood in Focus.' The aim was to mediate between poverty alleviation and ecological resilience in the city by identifying and piloting activities with the potential to reduce waste generation through the recycling and reuse of nutrients

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