In Bangladesh, slum dwellers willing to pay for waste removal

Refuse management is a major problem in slums worldwide, causing illness and diminishing quality of life. In tropical areas, piles of garbage collect rainfall and the stagnant pools breed malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Gastro-intestinal diseases such as diarrhea arise from drinking water contaminated by refuse. In an attempt to clear the garbage, residents will often burn the mounds of waste, causing a high incidence of respiratory illnesses and the release of harmful pollutants into the atmosphere.

Waste Concern, a public, private and community partnership in Bangladesh has responded to the lack of refuse management in Dhaka’s slums. The organization localizes value creation by employing slum dwellers to collect waste, process the organic components into compost, and sell the product to local farmers. Though 70% of the organization’s clients subsist on less than $2 a day, they are willing to pay a fee for house-to-house collection of waste. This shows that low-income communities value refuse removal, and are willing to support a system if the opportunity exists. With 2 billion people projected to be living in slums by 2030, there is significant potential for waste management market growth.

Sources:

Slum Health: from Understanding to Action
Converting Urban Waste into Resource: A Decentralized Approach
Waste Concern

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