**1. Introduction**

Today waste management in developing countries and particularly in East Africa is charac‐ terised by the involvement of both state and non state actors. The types of arrangement for service provision range from self-provision through collective action independent of exter‐ nal agencies to indirect state provision through sub-contracting to other agencies – NGOs, private for profit companies, user groups among others. Generally, there is much agreement that monopolistic provision realized entirely through state agencies is unfeasible, undesira‐ ble, or simply rather old fashioned [1, 2, 3]. However, there is little consensus on the alterna‐ tive. According to arguments presented by Joshi and Moore in [4], there is need to look beyond new discourses like New Public management and Public Private Partnerships indi‐ cating that the trend now is towards pragmatism, pluralism and adaptation to specific cir‐ cumstances because the reality in such developing countries is highly diverse. Some services, it is argued, cannot be effectively delivered to the ultimate recipients by state agen‐ cies because the environment is too complex or variable, and the costs of interacting with very large numbers of poor households are too high. In such cases, users become involved in an organized way at the local level. There are arrangements therefore that do not fit into standard categories. Some of these unorthodox arrangements are of recent origin, and are seen to constitute (smart) adaptations to prevailing local circumstances. They are wide‐ spread in developing countries but they raise many issues. This chapter looks at these ar‐ rangements through the lens of policy arrangement approach [5] to help discern which arrangement results in better waste management.

The urban centres studied are Mwanza, Kisumu, and Jinja which are considered primary ur‐ ban centres coming just after the capital cities in their respective countries. The three centres lie within the lake Victoria basin (See Figure 1) and therefore their individual efforts in

© 2013 Majale-Liyala; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2013 Majale-Liyala; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

waste management contribute to sustainable management of the lake by among other things, reducing the pollutant load into the Lake. These three were chosen because of certain similarities (and differences) but more so because they are all found on the shores of the lake basin as mentioned earlier and they are all primary urban centers which makes them com‐ parable in urban status.

**Figure 1: Map of The Lake Basin Showing Location of the Three Areas under Study in their respective countries –Marked With Arrows. Figure 1.** Map of The Lake Basin Showing Location of the Three Areas under Study in their respective countries – Marked With Arrows.

Solid waste management is particularly a problem for urban centres in developing countries. Growing economies and

challenges could lie in the policy arrangements. This chapter therefore seeks to compare the policy arrangement of

#### swelling population numbers from both in-migration and natural growth are continually increasing the urban centers' sizes. These large and growing population is one of the main forces driving the centres overwhelming environmental challenges including solid waste management. Key interventions to addressing the solid waste management **2. Problem statement**

**2.1 Problem Statement** 

three urban centres in East Africa in order to conclude on which arrangement(s) presents the most flexible, robust and sustainable option for solid waste management. Flexible to include both state and non-state actors, robust to keep on running or operating under changing national circumstances (like the economy) and sustainable to contribute to the improvement of environmental conditions. **2.2 Profile of the Urban centres studies**  Kisumu is the third largest urban center in Kenya after Nairobi and Mombasa. It is located in Nyanza province in the Western part of Kenya. Geologically it sits on the arm of tertiary lava, which extends southwards overlooking the plains to the East and Winam gulf of Lake Victoria to the West. The Lava formation is attributed to the tectonomagnetic activities associated with the Kano-Rift valley system. As a result the city is curved into a trough with the walls of the Nandi escarpment to the East dropping onto the floor of the Kano flood plains and gently flowing to the Dunga wetlands at the shores of the Lake Victoria. Kisumu covers an area of 297km<sup>2</sup> of land mass and 120km<sup>2</sup> under the lake. The population of the council has been increasing rapidly, and at a growth rate of 2.8% per annum it Solid waste management is particularly a problem for urban centres in developing coun‐ tries. Growing economies and swelling population numbers from both in-migration and natural growth are continually increasing the urban centers' sizes. These large and growing population is one of the main forces driving the centres overwhelming environmental chal‐ lenges including solid waste management. Key interventions to addressing the solid waste management challenges could lie in the policy arrangements. This chapter therefore seeks to compare the policy arrangement of three urban centres in East Africa in order to conclude on which arrangement(s) presents the most flexible, robust and sustainable option for solid

3

Jinja is the second largest urban center in Uganda after Kampala city. It is located 81km East of Kampala. It is situated just north of the equator, on the northern shores of Lake Victoria and at the source of the Nile River. The

was estimated at about 500,000 in 2007 from 322,734 people in 1999.

waste management. Flexible to include both state and non-state actors, robust to keep on running or operating under changing national circumstances (like the economy) and sus‐ tainable to contribute to the improvement of environmental conditions.
