Public private partnership in solid waste management in Sunyani Municipality, Ghana

Abstract

Solid waste managementis one of the major issues facing most countries globally. Solid waste was already a problem long before water and air pollution issues attracted public attention. Solid waste managementrepresents a major economic and environmental issue throughout the world. Governments have adopted public private partnership (PPP) as a solution for solid waste management because of the herculean nature of the waste management task in terms of finance and technical expertise.The study focused on public private partnership in solid waste management in the Sunyani Municipality. The main objective of the study was to interrogate the institutional arrangement put in place for public private partnership in the Sunyani Municipality. To achieve the objective the study adopted the qualitative approach and interviewed 32 respondents using semi-structured interviewing and non-participant observation. Data collected were analysed and presented under themes. The study found that the institutional arrangement for PPP in the Sunyani Municipality was weak. However, it was established that solid waste management in the municipality was guided by national laws on environmental health and bye-laws of the Assembly. With respect to resources in the implementation of PPP, the study found that, even though the private partner had some resources, they were not enough for the proper management of solid waste in the Sunyani Municipality under a PPP arrangement. The study recommends the strengthening of institutional arrangement such as monitoring, sanctioning of poor performance and the formulation of bye-laws by the Assembly to guide the PPP arrangement