Kipumbwi beach covered with litter
Sea Sense
The solution addresses poor waste management in Pangani District, Tanzania for a coastal community at one pilot site. Creative and participatory outreach tools were used to raise awareness of the importance of waste management, to initiate dialogue among citizens and village leaders, and to mobilize people into action. Citizens and leaders subsequently applied their new knowledge to formulate local waste management bylaws, providing a sustainable, legal framework for improved waste management.
Last update: 30 Sep 2020
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Context
Challenges addressed
Poor waste management, degradation of coastal habitats, human wellbeing
The solution addresses the challenge of poor waste management in coastal communities where beaches and other coastal habitats e.g. forests and mangroves, are frequently used as a dumping ground for household waste and as public latrines. The solution addresses attitudes towards waste management and changes behaviors that contribute to habitat degradation and expose citizens to infectious diseases.
Location
Pangani District, Tanzania, East Africa
East and South Africa
Process
Summary of the process
The building blocks are arranged in a way that they create a supportive environment for change by first providing access to information in a highly participatory manner so that citizens do not feel pressured to go against social or cultural norms. Moving through the building blocks, citizens feel empowered to adopt more positive behaviors and begin to understand the importance of personal accountability. Through the engagement of local leaders from the outset, the solution helps to build relationships between leaders and citizens so that there is a shared vision for the community in relation to waste management. This shared vision is applied through the formulation of waste management bylaws.
Steps:
1. Identify the issue of concern through site visits, stakeholder discussions/meetings etc.
2. Plan and implement an awareness strategy.
3. Elicit support from key stakeholders e.g. village leaders, councilors, MPs, district authorities.
4. Strengthen capacity of community actors to take the lead on the issue.
5. Facilitate the formulation of local bylaws or other legal frameworks.
6. Document and disseminate project results as widely as possible to stimulate interest in replication and advocate for appropriate policy changes.
Building Blocks
Community awareness of the impacts of poor waste management
An education and outreach programme (e.g. community theatre, radio campaign, community events) is implemented to raise awareness of waste management, stimulate initial dialogue and influence attitude and behaviour changes. Community theatre is a very successful tool to achieve this. Up to 5 members of the community are trained as data collectors and spend a week interviewing citizens and key stakeholders in order to collect ‘data’ on attitudes, behaviors and perceptions towards waste management Data are analyzed and translated into a series of storylines. A second group of citizens (up to 15) are trained as ‘artists’ and participate in a week of training (story-telling, role playing and scripting) and rehearsals. At the end of the week the theatre performance takes place. At critical points in the performance, an MC invites the audience to ask questions, exchange ideas and experiences, and debate solutions to waste management challenges. The community theatre is followed up with practical outreach activities such as beach clean-ups to introduce the concept of the four R’s (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle). Village leaders are encouraged to take part in practical activities to promote good governance and strong leadership.
Enabling factors
Community participation, support from village level government, financial resources
Lesson learned
Storylines created in community theatre projects will often touch upon the issue of weak governance. It is important that the MC of the final performance is skilled in managing the debate otherwise it can lead to a situation where leaders feel their position is being undermined. Debates can also be quite divisive with many opposing views so a skilled MC should be able to provide a platform for citizens to speak out while facilitating constructive dialogue. The MC should maintain a neutral and balanced position so that the views of citizens are upheld rather than the views of the MC himself.
Resources
Building capacity for waste recycling
A community group (e.g. Environment Committee, fisheries association) is trained in techniques to collect data on different types of waste (organic and non-organic) that commonly occur on beaches so that items for recycling or reusing can be identified. Following the training the group is able to sort and categorize different types of waste and complete a marine debris datasheet. The datasheet can be submitted to the Ocean Conservancy in USA which manages a global marine database. This activity helps to foster a sense of ownership of the local environment as well as a feeling of belonging to a larger initiative. At a local level, recyclable items e.g. plastic bottles, flip-flops and glass, can be separated and sold to collectors. As a result the community is able to generate income from waste. The group is recognized by their peers as a community waste management team which puts them in a position to lobby fellow citizens and local politicians (councilors and MPs) for further action on waste management.
Enabling factors
Commitment from community groups to address waste management challenges
Lesson learned
As recycling activities commence and opportunities for income generation arise, it is important to establish how the revenue is managed and distributed so that it is fair, equitable and transparent. Ideally, any revenue generated through the sale of recyclable waste should be reinvested in environmental conservation and protection to that the community can recognize the economic benefits of their actions.
Resources
Formulation and implementation of waste management bylaws
The community group identified in building block 2 together with a selection of village leaders is trained in bylaw formulation and implementation. Topics covered in the training include government structures in Tanzania and types of laws and regulations; concept and fundamentals of local government; management of natural resources at village level; Tanzania legislation related to waste management; meaning of bylaws; regulations that guide formulation of bylaws; process of local bylaw formulation; approval of formulated bylaws at district level; and implementation of approved bylaws (including opportunities and challenges). The training process enables the group to conduct a detailed analysis of the current status of waste management in their communities and understand the expected impact of poor waste management if it is not well considered in the bylaws. Understanding the process of bylaw formulation and approval also helps participants to recognize the existing management and administrative gaps between the district council, village council and community members so that an effective strategy can be put together to address the gaps and build a strong co-management approach.
Enabling factors
Support and commitment from village government for formulation, implementation and enforcement of waste management bylaws, support and action from District Legal Team for the bylaw approval process.
Lesson learned
It is of considerable benefit (but not essential) to invite a police officer to participate in bylaw training to provide advice and guidance on the practicalities of law enforcement and judicial processes and to build relationships between trainees and law enforcement authorities.
Documenting and sharing the success story
This building block focuses on documenting and disseminating results so that the experience can be captured and replicated elsewhere. Sharing and disseminating successful project results can encourage other interested parties to conduct site visits to observe the project first hand and meet the people involved. This kind of peer to peer learning can often be the first step towards replication.
Documentation can also be used as a powerful advocacy tool to create leverage for greater commitment to waste management policies at regional and national scales. Documentation can be in many different formats ranging from a brief project summary or personal testimonies from the people involved, to powerful images that show the project in action or short film clips that can be embedded in websites and shared on social media etc. The greater variety of visual documentation the project has, the greater influence it can have on decision making processes related to waste management (or any other issue of concern).
Documentation of results also plays an important role in the review and evaluation phase so that project leaders can identify the contribution of each building block to the overall outcome.
Enabling factors
Ability to document project results in a visually appealing way, access to dissemination pathways.
Lesson learned
One of the most powerful media for sharing results is through personal testimonies on film. However, this can be expensive if done through a professional media house. However, there is plenty of free, online digital editing software available that can be used to produce a film clip ‘in-house’ for a fraction of the cost.
Impacts
1. The risks to human health caused by illnesses associated with poor sanitation e.g. vomiting, diahorrea, cholera are reduced. This impact is significant because the loss of productivity caused by illnesses compromises family incomes and decreases resilience to other livelihoods challenges e.g. climate change.
2. Degradation of coastal habitats caused by poor waste management is reduced, thereby creating a healthy and productive environment for marine biodiversity to flourish and for coastal livelihoods to prosper.
3. There is a tangible improvement in attitudes towards community stewardship of marine and coastal resources because the positive impacts of waste management actions are highly visible. Citizens start to recognize that they have an important role to play in the protection of their environment and through this role they begin to demand greater accountability from their leaders and improved governance of natural resources.
Beneficiaries
Coastal communities in Pangani District, Tanzania.
Story
In 2011, Sea Sense became increasingly concerned by persistent reports of dynamite fishing, the use of illegal beach seine nets and sea turtle slaughter by local and migrant fishers in Pangani District. Sea Sense visited Pangani to raise awareness of the impacts of illegal fishing on marine ecosystems and local livelihoods. While in Pangani Sea Sense observed that poor waste management was also an issue of serious concern. Beaches were being used as dumping grounds for household waste and fish waste. Many villagers were also using beaches, mangroves and coastal forests as public latrines. Rotting waste, fish carcasses and human excrement were observed in close proximity to areas of the beach used by fishers to dry sardines. The potential for the spread of infectious disease represented a serious health concern.
A waste management awareness campaign was initiated using community theatre, local radio and public events on World Environment Day and World Sea Turtle Day. Through access to information, citizens become increasingly aware of the impacts of poor waste management and mobilized themselves into action. A weekly village clean-up was implemented by Kipumbwi Village Council and the Pangani District Commissioner announced a weekly clean-up in Pangani Town. The immediate impact was very dramatic and in the lead up to a World Environment Day celebration, a further fifty District Staff participated in a ‘Clean Up Pangani’ campaign. A community fisheries management group in Kipumbwi successfully lobbied their local MP to join in.
The fisheries management group have continued to take action on waste and requested training from Sea Sense to help them participate in International Coastal Clean Up Day. The group collected 66kgs of waste which was sorted and weighed. Data were submitted to the global marine debris database.
To ensure long term sustainability the community has now prioritized the formulation of local waste management bylaws. The bylaws were drafted during participatory sessions in early 2015 and are currently awaiting approval by the District Council. At the end of 2015, four years after the initial engagement on waste management issues, Kipumbwi beach is one of the cleanest in Pangani and is used by villagers as a place for socializing and relaxation. The community has been approached by village councils from neighbouring villages for advice on waste management and their actions are already being replicated elsewhere.
