The Effects of Solid Waste on the Environment in Gaborone City, Botswana

The purpose of the study was to examine how solid waste affects the environment in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. The specific research questions of the study were i) How does solid waste affect the environment? ii) Which solid waste causes more harm to the environment? iii) Which legislation coordinates environmental solid waste management issues? iv) How effectively coordinated is governance of the solid waste management sector? Qualitative data were obtained from fifteen key informants by adopting a phenomenological approach, using in-depth interviews for data collection. The study revealed that solid waste affects the aesthetic beauty of the environment: the solid waste that causes more harm to the environment is biomedical, industrial, and healthcare, and hazardous. Legislation that coordinated urban solid waste was, among others, the Botswana Clinical Code of Practice of 1995, the Waste Management Act, 1998, and the Botswana Public Health Act, 2013. Further, it was found that the solid waste management governance framework was fragmented and siloed. The main conclusions drawn are that: city authorities should educate stakeholders on solid waste mismanagement legislation and consequences; the empirical findings on urban solid waste are expected to enhance the understanding of policymakers on environmental sustainability in both Gaborone and Botswana.