Quality assessment of public and private modes of solid waste collection in Accra, Ghana

Abstract

In the course of 5 yr, the system of solid waste collection (SWC) in Accra has undergone a fundamental turn from public to private provision. The transition was motivated by the apparent inability of the city's Waste Management Department to deal with the mounting problems of waste collection and the prevailing belief that the market would help to overcome these. The indigenous private sector was called upon to improve service performance. Until mid-1999 public and private modes of SWC co-existed, enabling a systematic comparison between them using a 10-point assessment scheme. The analysis shows that privatisation has benefited consumers in terms of wider coverage, higher frequency, and more reliable services, but that there are also a number of drawbacks, notably worsened labour conditions and increased environmental dangers. The greatest flaw, however, is its lack of financial sustainability. This is related to the non-commercial nature of the service, particularly the social and political sensitivity of cost recovery in a poor country. The central government's 1999 decision to impose a private monopoly in SWC—in order to speed up the process and solve the waste collection problem in the metropolis once and for all—is criticised. This decision will compound financial problems, hamper the development of an indigenous business sector and fail to build on the potentials of a system that seemed very promising.