Local governance and public participation in sustainable solid waste management in Hatyai Municipality, Thailand | |
| Author | Chanisada Charuvichaipong |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.UE-05-01 |
| Subject(s) | Refuse and refuse disposal--Thailand--Hatyai Municipality Social participation--Thailand--Hatyai Municipality |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Dominance of normative development framework of decentralization and sustainable development since the last decade of the last century has put pressure on local city authorities to shift from end-of-pipe to a non-end-of-pipe approach in solid waste management. The latter is characterized, among others, by waste separation for waste recycling and required community and household support and mobilization, and performance of new tasks and creation of new arrangements in existing local government agencies traditionally responsible for the solid waste collection and disposal in a city. This dissertation studies the case of Hatyai City, in Thailand that tried to introduce important aspects of non-end-of-pipe approach to its existing conventional solid waste management - - how the existing arrangement and traditional practices of local bureaucracy mediated and responded to the tasks and requirements of the new approach, and how dominant characteristics of state-society relations at the city and grassroots levels affected the quality of public participation required in non-end-of-pipe projects. Its central focus are the tensions, discontinuities, and incompatibilities that an introduction of new approach to solid waste management creates within the bureaucracy and in the arena of state and society relations at the city and community levels, impacting on and constraining the initiative. It uses mainly qualitative data-gathering methods of key informant interviews, focus group interviews, participant observation and documentary research, and qualitative analysis. This case study shows that top priority traditionally accorded by local elected officials to street cleaning of major streets in the CBD and to efficient waste collection and transport, activities that are more publicly visible and politically sensitive, has undermined their commitment to support a non-end-of-pipe approach to local solid waste management. It also argues that the new approach has been subverted by institutionalized internal arrangements and routine practices of the local bureaucracy such as organizational rigidity and strict rule-boundedness, administrative fragmentation, and hierarchical structure and top-downism. On the other hand, public participation in planning and decision making, a necessary component for popularizing and sustaining newly introduced projects of waste separation at source, became undermined by lack of opportunity structures for participation, low engagement of civil society organization, traditional dominance of patron-client relations, and absence of local civic-mindedness and environmentalism. The author further argues that the likelihood of success of non-end-of-pipe solid waste management projects in developing country city such as Hatyai requires a complex of innovations and changes in the mind-set of public officials, salient adaptations, and creation of new structures in local bureaucracy. It also requires a break from traditional style of public administration and dominant characteristics of state and society relations, and a major shift instead to good governance requiring robust development of civil society organisations and their engagement with the state and raising of local civic culture. Without this complex of changes and innovations in developing country cities, the conventional end-of-pipe solid waste management system would likely remain dominant and unchanged for some time in the future. |
| Year | 2005 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Urban Environmental and Management (UE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Sajor, Edsel; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Zimmermann, Willi;Nowarat Coowanitwong;Orathai Kokpol;Maurer, Jean Luc; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA);Prince of Songkla University, Thailand; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005 |