Adoption of decentralised waste management systems in Zanzibar

September 07, 2018

Zanzibar municipality is divided into three urban areas- Zanzibar Municipal Council (ZMC), Municipality A and Municipality B. In total there are 40,000 to 50,000 households and the total population of the urban municipality is 2, 23,000. Of the total 230 tonnes of waste that is generated in Zanzibar every day, 120 tonnes is collected. The collection efficiency is 86% in the Stone Town area, however, it is less than 40 percent in other areas. The municipality takes care of solid waste management in four operational areas namelyStone Town, West, North and South town.

There is door-to-door collection in Stone Town, wherein every morning waste collectors collect waste from households in pushcarts that can go inside the narrow alleys. The waste is then taken to a primary collection point (5 in number), and from there the trucks take waste to the dumpsite, situated 20 km away from the city in Kibele, having an area of 47ha. There is no processing of waste and no sanitary landfill in Zanzibar.