City-Level Decoupling-Case Studies

CITY-LEVEL DECOUPLING: URBAN RESOURCE FLOWS AND THE GOVERNANCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSITIONS

• Appropriate technologies: Despite

being rudimentary and apparently not hygienic, the equipment and tools are cheap to manufacture and operate. The design is simple and well adapted to local characteristics. Tricycle carts and three-wheel auto-rickshaws are easy to manoeuvre through the small alleys of the city.

Solid waste collection by motor tricycle (Source: Dr. Pham Gia Tran)

• Employment generation: The business provides employment to poor individuals who lack the skills necessary for more demanding enterprises.

• User-pays system: The door-to-door collection is a reliable system that serves most households. This promotes an efficient user-pays system, as people are more willing to pay when the services are more reliable and effective. The collection fees are negotiated between households and collectors according to affordability and willingness to pay.

• Demand responsive: The syndicates mobilize services in areas not covered by the public agency. They actively reach out to households in need of service.

• Cost effective: The collection services currently provided by syndicates of individual collectors are cost effective. If they were to become district employees, the payment of salaries and provision of equipment would require an enormous budget beyond the government’s financial capacity.

Despite its successes, the socialisation of waste management in Ho Chi Minh City still faces several challenges:

• No concrete mechanisms and legislative documents are in place for operation.

• No regulations compel residents to participate in maintaining sanitary environments or ensure that their waste is removed. Many households have no waste collection contracts and avoid paying collection fees, so illegal dumping represents a challenge. • Socialisation is currently limited to the collection component of the solid waste system. It is difficult to socialise the transportation and treatment components due to high equipment costs and a lack of space for secondary collection and transportation.

• Health and safety concerns for the collectors are lacking.

Urban social infrastructure programs can be sustainable and successful if local communities and small independent service providers are involved as major stakeholders and decision-makers. Each stakeholder plays distinct and important roles. As different actors may have different interests and potentials, the negotiation and coordination over roles and types of involvement is a crucial element in organizing the scheme. Managing waste collection and transportation is not only the

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