Enhancing sustainability of municipal solid waste management: ward-based approach as a governance framework in Dhaka City

Rapid urbanization and high population density have intensified the challenges of municipal solid waste management (SWM) in Dhaka, a megacity where effective governance is a critical factor. This paper presents a good governance framework, ward-based approach (WBA) and explores its sustainability potential towards SWM. WBA has been modeled and implemented for over a decade in the collection phase. In-depth interviews of the experts, surveys, document reviews were conducted and then employed triangulation to analyze and cross-validate the information, providing deeper insights into WBA. The contributions of WBA were examined to purposively select three aspects of SWM sustainability: (a) feasibility of waste-to-energy incineration, (b) achievement of local sustainable development goals (SDGs) and (c) compliance with the national SWM Rules. This paper argues that WBA demonstrates a promising governance framework to enhance sustainability of SWM. However, the inherent operational challenges of WBA may hinder the success unless tackled carefully.