Assessing the feasibility of integrated solid waste management (ISWM) in the Global South: insights from Pakistan

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management challenges are increasing with rising waste production due to unchecked urban population growth in the Global South. While issues have been largely attributed to waste handling, infrastructure, local governance, management, corruption, and dearth of both expertise and assets. Objectives of this paper are twofold: first, to use the established Integrated Solid Waste Management Framework (ISWM) to evaluate the current MSWM, taking two case study cities of Pakistan (Quetta and Faisalabad); second, to assess ISWM’s viability in the Global south, where informality shapes ineffective governance and socio-economic conditions departing from formal practices, given ISWM’s limited adoption in Global South contrary to developed countries. This comparative study of MSW uses qualitative research methodology and focuses on two contextually relevant aspects of ISWM: socio-economic and institutional. Findings reveal shortcomings in both the existing workforce conditions and within the ISWM framework in addressing informal practices and the related socio-economic dimension.