Solid Waste Management in Addis Ababa : A new approach to improving the waste management system

Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia suffers from poor solid waste management. The inadequate solid waste management system has rendered development, lessened the aesthetic beauty of the city and most importantly endangered the lives of the people. Regardless of the harmfulness of the waste, solid waste management has not been given the amount of attention it requires. The insufficient management and lack of attention to the matter can be observed from the unbearable litter in the rivers, drains and streets in Addis Ababa. It is obvious that immediate action is needed in the solid waste management sector. Therefore, this thesis aimed at studying the solid waste management system in Addis Ababa to find the main causes for the insufficient service delivery. For these reasons, this thesis also aimed to give suggestions on how the current situation can be improved. There are only a handful of researches and projects related to solid waste management; all these works mainly focus on the current situation and future improvements. However, this thesis focused on finding the cause of the problem by investigating the development measures the city took. The primary work of this thesis was to study the current solid waste management system using the limited research papers and project reports. In addition, it aimed at discussing the main causes of the inadequate solid waste management in Addis Ababa. The thesis also analyses three case studies that were thought to be significant to suggest a solution: case for the IGNIS project, case for the Informal waste recovery system in Addis Ababa and case for the solid waste management system in Windhoek, Namibia. On the basis of the results of the thesis, three methods have been suggested to address the urgent and massive need of Addis Ababa’s solid waste management system. These are importing the appropriate waste and environmental management education, formalizing the informal waste recovery system and lastly, establishing public-private partnership in all the waste management segments