The right place. Solid waste management in the Republic of Maldives: between infrastructural measures and local practices

Abstract

The 2010 UNPD’s Assessment of Development Results defined the Maldives “a vulnerable Small Island Developing State” by pointing out the influence of both external and local human factors on their fragile ecosystems. This impact is deeply related to a main geographical feature: the high dispersion of land mass and population, both of them spread over a distance of 860 km. Above all, this dispersion has an effect on two environmental issues: energy distribution and solid waste management. The latter is particularly interesting for the geographical analysis of Small Island Countries. Due to centre-periphery distance and cost benefits analysis, in the Maldives public and private actors have developed different solid waste management models: central and regional waste management dumpsites, hybrid systems implemented by resorts and “informal” practices still followed by local communities. In this paper, we discuss these systems stressing on the relevance of combining infrastructural measures with “informal” practices at local level. Furthermore, we report the outcomes of The Right Place, a participatory waste management action carried out by MaRHE Center (a Milano- Bicocca Research Center) in Faafu Magoodhoo Island.

Environmental policy and climate change vulnerability in the Maldives: from the ‘lexicon of risk’ to social response to change

“…The spatial distribution (Figure 2) of this driving sector of the national economy is marked by the contrast between an undeniable concentration of facilities in the central atolls (Kaaf and Alif Alif), the marginalization of many outer atolls, and the significant number of facilities located in outlying atolls, such as Noon and Gaaf Alif, which enjoy better access to supplies of goods and services. Similar observations apply to other areas of human geography, such as waste and energy management systems (Ministry of Housing andEnvironment, 2010c, 2010d;Ministry of Environment and Energy, 2013b;Malatesta et al, 2015). The key policy implication-at the national level-of these geographical features is the need for flexible measures that may be applied to different scales and to an extremely heterogeneous set of demographic, ecological, and socio-economic contexts.…”

“…In the Maldives, we may define the social response to change as the set of adjustments (political, cultural, technological, and social) that local communities adopt to cope with the exogenous changes impacting the geographies of islands. These strategies may be studied by focusing on different levels: Sovacool, by investigating the perceptions of local administrators, explores the institutional level; the Ministerial report, by assessing the effectiveness of soft adjustments on a sample of inhabited islands, describes the infrastructural level; our previous study on collective waste management points to the role of local knowledge and practices in shaping these adjustments (Malatesta et al, 2015).…”

“…This advice confirms Kelman's observation that small island communities have a long history of addressing social and environmental challenges. In a previous paper (Malatesta et al, 2015), we stressed the role of such 'indigenous knowledge' and practices in the development of environmental policies that integrate local action with top-down infrastructural measures. In the current paper, we claim that the influence of climate change discourse on Maldivian environmental policies is a major obstacle to the implementation of this recommendation.…”

Promoting education for sustainable development in the Maldives: Exploring the link between theory and practice

“…Furthermore, PWS elicited a high level of cooperation among the various actors. This cooperation fostered the design and implementation of other community-based projects: For example, between 2013 and 2014, the MaRHE Center developed a participatory waste management action involving the Women's Development Committee, a public institution representing the female population of local islands (Malatesta et al 2015). Finally, as argued by Blanchet-Cohen (2008), such a project stimulates adolescents' environmental involvement through three steps: (1) empowering social and personal engagement on a local issue of common interest affecting the everyday life of the whole community; (2) questioning, in this case, the impact of new technologies; and…”

Economic and life cycle analysis of municipal solid waste management for small islands: On-site management scenarios versus off-site transportation

“…Despite the extensive application of LCA in MSW management, limited research appears to exist on the management of solid wastes in small islands (Diaz, 2007;Willmott and Graci, 2012;Tallei et al, 2013;Zis et al, 2013;Malatesta et al, 2015;Shams Fallah et al, 2013). Most small islands (such as the ones in the Aegean sea, the Carribean, the Canary islands, the Phillipines etc) have a high seasonal waste generation variation, due to touristic activities, and a limited space to treat and dispose of the waste.…”