The Project Summary should describe the project context, including the key environmental problem to be addressed, and the proposed approach, including the rationale/justification for the project. This section should describe the project location, a profile of the project sites, as well as the target community (ies) involved.
Sera na Miji Safi is a unique community-based approach for advocating policy reforms at the grassroots for better Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management. Its goal is to build the resilience of vulnerable resource-user groups in Shimoni-Wasini seascapes against unsustainable infrastructural developments and climate change. The target seascapes are hotspots for marine biodiversity upon which local communities have over the years become increasingly dependent for livelihoods in fisheries and tourism. Nonetheless, policy gaps at Kwale County level have inhibited the operationalization of national and global best practices in waste management leading to a vicious cycle of unsustainable developments in infrastructure, tourism and fisheries resulting in the destruction of fisheries and tourist destinations. Key habitats that support climate change mitigation and adaptation for the target community such as coral gardens, seagrass beds and mangrove forests also face considerable degradation due to MSW pollution and overexploitation leading to biodiversity losses.
Although opportunities for enjoying social and environmental justice exist in the new Kenya Constitution and the UN SDGs, groups in Shimoni-Wasini lack the capacity of claiming and actualizing the required policy reforms. This weakness also hinders local groups from voicing their concerns on the state of MSW or the full adoption of their local ideas and suggestions. The proposed project applies participatory approaches to inform local groups on ways they could anchor their concerns and suggestions for MSW management into county policy frameworks and market linkages with value-chain actors for fair legal backing and access to capital, training and technology.
Social and economic transformations in the coastal region of Kenya are still hinged on natural resources that are extremely sensitive to climatic and socio-political variability and environmental degradation. Fisheries, for instance, employs over 2 million people and feeds 7 million more, but is still derived from spaces that are vulnerable to pollution, overexploitation and encroachments. Similarly, tourism contributes about 27% of foreign exchange and 12% of national GDP but is derived from spaces that are exposed to rapid loss of aesthetic value. The loss of such benefits is substantial and it demonstrates how power inequalities in one region could translate to vulnerability for an entire nation and vice versa, how empowerment of an area could contribute to the relevance and sustainability of national development policies.
Shimoni-Wasini seascape is experiencing rapid socioeconomic and structural changes in tourism, trade and infrastructure. For instance, the area shall host the Kshs. 9 trillion Shimoni Integrated Development Program (SIDEP), the largest bitumen refinery in Kenya, over 60 access roads and highways, and the Shimoni port and jetty to name a few. However, Kwale County cites lack of regulations to operationalize national environmental policies as a significant barrier to the adoption of best environmental practices and investments in MSW and to linkages between waste generators and handlers in ways that enables value-chain enhancements and creates livelihood opportunities for locals. As a result, Shimoni-Wasini seascape is witnessing a surge in volumes and complexity of waste than ever before and facing real handicaps in executing best practices in MSW management.
Although small-scale interventions by communities such as controlled littering and beach clean-ups by local women and youth groups and beach management units (BMUs), could offer useful remedies in the short-term, such groups lack the capacity to advocate for comprehensive policy reforms which hinder the realization of longer-term and strategic changes. The awareness and adoption of best available technology in MSW will also require targeted training, demonstrations and incubation of local innovations including learning from peers. Lastly, we find that strategic linkages between local stakeholders in MSW and the private, government and CSO actors could avail much needed capital and entrepreneurship skills to deepen value-chain interventions for reduction, recovery, reuse, recycling and disposal of MSW.
A reconnaissance visit by CEJAD demonstrated how this policy gap has abetted rapid infrastructural developments leading to a rise in tourist activities, waste volumes and complexity these outcomes may have already outstretched and constrained local capacity to reduce, treat and effectively dispose of plastic and organic waste. Local bureaucracy has also been greatly compromised by being part of government, to critique development projects. Negative publicity over the loss of cleanliness has affected tourist arrivals and led to overexploitation and degradation of mangroves, fisheries and coral gardens to meet household demands. Lack of capital and technology by local groups managing MSW managers such as Wasini Women Group has perpetuated the dependence on poor practices including open burning and dumping of wastes and its negative impacts on public health, ecosystems and community assets/installations such as boardwalks and seaweed gardens. The scenario has created a downward spiral in which poor MSW management leads to poorer community development and conservation outcomes and poorer MSW management. It was evident that local groups contacted lack the knowledge, skills and capital to champion the required policy changes, technology transfers and rebuild linkages.
This project therefore was conceived out of a need to integrate innovative approaches such as value chain in the management of solid waste management, build the capacity of local community organizations and waste handlers in the value chain approach, strengthen local governance systems for simple and community-driven reduction, segregation, recovery, reuse and sustainable disposal of solid waste as well as mainstreaming of the same in the county and national policies and laws.