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

Abstract

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.

(cont.) Citizen protest, in turn, pushed the city to improve performance in solid waste management and, ultimately, motivated the city to formalize its relationship with small-scale private providers. Foreign NGOs and donors have both helped and hindered this process. Several NGOs have played important intermediary and technical assistance roles. Yet other donors have undermined the city's ability to keep a working fleet of garbage trucks on the road by making donations in a top-down fashion without attention to maintenance and sustainability. Whereas residents of Maputo exercised voice through protest, city officials adopt a "beggars can't be choosers" mentality when interacting with donors. Together, theses stories illustrate the important dynamics of voice and accountability (or lack thereof) in shaping service-delivery reforms.