After the flood : crisis, voice and innovation in Maputo's solid waste management sector

This thesis explores responses to the problem of solid waste management (SWM) in two neighborhoods of Maputo, Mozambique in the wake of catastrophic flooding in 2000. In these neighborhoods, small-scale service providers began to organize door-to-door garbage collection on a fee-for-service basis. The emergence of community-level responses to a problem in the wake of a crisis the like the floods is not surprising in and of itself. What is surprising, however, is that the city of Maputo stepped in almost three years later, to finance and formalize what had been a private service through the extension of public contracts. What motivated the city to upgrade SWM services in these two poor, and traditionally underserved neighborhoods? Catastrophic flooding in 2000 and the implementation of a "garbage tax" in 2002 set in motion a chain of events that increased pressure on the city to improve garbage collection. The floods catapulted the issue of solid waste onto the local political agenda, creating the political will necessary for reform. The tax was a major driver of citizen protest, simultaneously angering residents and instilling them with a sense of entitlement to better service.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Kruks-Wisner, Gabrielle (Gabrielle K.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Judith Tendler.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37672

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/37672