Urban environmental problems: social and environmental injustices in solid waste management in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo
Date
2016
Authors
Kubanza, Nzalalemba Serge
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Abstract
The purpose of this research was to investigate the concepts of social and environmental justice in the context of solid waste management in Kinshasa and the critical factors accounting for injustice in this context. The investigation followed an examination of the relevant theoretical framework(s) and mechanisms that would facilitate the attainment of social and environmental justice in the city of Kinshasa, DRC. It was argued that social justice and environmental justice are a global challenge, and that efforts to address these challenges are usually biased towards employing eurocentric frameworks that are unfit to deal with the reality of environmental problems in a developing country scenario. The use of eurocentric urban development and planning approaches, which in most cases are outdated, have significantly propagated issues of spatial inequality in the distribution of solid waste burdens and have contributed to worsening justice concerns in many cities in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
It has been illustrated in this study that social justice and environmental justice in the context of solid waste management must be seen as intrinsically connected, as both concepts emphasise the need for empirical understandings grounded in local contexts. Social and environmental justices play fundamental roles in the theoretical construction of principles that can contribute to a sustainable community, thereby ensuring that the rights and needs of individuals in a society are met. In the context of solid waste, the concepts of social justice and environmental justice are compelling because of their focus on ensuring equal service delivery in solid waste collection and disposal, while simultaneously redressing previous imbalances. Walker (2009) argues that the principles of environmental and social justice and sustainable development are more generally in their infancy in sub-Saharan Africa, and few implementing agencies and practitioners have a clear understanding of how to translate these
global principles into practice. It is not surprising, therefore, that unresolved issues around sustainable development and environmental justice have emerged in a period during which implementation and the real implications of following a justice pathway have overwhelmed many urban managers in sub-Saharan African cities (Patel 2009).
Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods together with system thinking and system dynamics modelling principles as integral frameworks in understanding the complexity in solid waste management, it has been demonstrated that solid waste management in Kinshasa, like in many Congolese cities, is a duty entrusted to publicly-funded municipal authorities. There is a clear divide and evidence in the manner by which solid waste is managed between the rich and poor neighborhoods of the city. The rich neighbourhoods seem to enjoy well-formulated systems of service delivery, in contrast with high-density areas, where almost 80% of the population in Kinshasa resides. This state of affairs is a result of inequalities that exist between the more powerful wealthy class and the disempowered poor people of the urban society in Kinshasa. Furthermore, cultural theory paradigms and conceptual System Dynamics (SD) modelling principles were employed to establish how the stakeholders in the form of four social solidarities (fatalist, hierarchist, individualist and egalitarian) influence solid waste management in the city and how they interact with each other dynamically. Based on this inter-linkage, interaction and causal feedback relations, a politico-cultural mechanism was evolved to enable changes to social and environmental injustices in solid waste management in Kinshasa, DRC. It was argued that a cultural theory inspired participative and collaborative mechanisms could result in the incorporation of a majority of the stakeholders in the decision making and implementation of solid waste management, adoption of technologies and innovative ways of managing solid
waste, which could prompt social and environmental justice in solid waste management in Kinshasa, DRC.
The findings of the study have both theoretical and practical implications. They provide a thorough discourse on environmental justice in solid waste management and how cultural theory paradigm can offer a new dimension to the theories behind stakeholder’s participation in local development and management matters, particularly with respect to social and environmental injustice in solid waste management in sub-Saharan African cities. They also explicitly show how the various social solidarities could work dynamically in an integrated manner, and enable development of policy intervention mechanisms to resolve the solid waste management challenges and attain social and environmental justice through their effective collaboration, and participation, although this may be through compromises and tradeoffs in place of consensus. This paradigm could assist government agencies like municipalities to develop appropriate policy interventions and implementation strategies to resolve solid waste management challenges in sub-Saharan African cities in general and in the Democratic Republic of Congo in particular.
Keywords: Cultural theory, environmental justice, social justice, solid waste management, urban environmental problem, Kinshasa
Description
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, September 2016.
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Citation
Kubanza, Nzalalemba Serge (2016) Urban environmental problems: social and environmental injustices in solid waste management in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/21698>