SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT - Compared to those in developed nations, residents in developing countries, especially the urban poor, are more severely impacted by unsustainably managed waste. In low-income countries, over 90% of waste is often disposed in unregulated dumps or openly burned. These practices create serious health, safety, and environmental consequences. Poorly managed waste serves as a breeding ground for disease vectors, contributes to global climate change through methane generation, and can even promote urban violence. Around the world, waste generation rates are rising. In 2016, the worlds’ cities generated 2.01 billion tonnes of solid waste, amounting to a footprint of 0.74 kilograms per person per day. With rapid population growth and urbanization, annual waste generation is expected to increase by 70% from 2016 levels to 3.40 billion tonnes in 2050. Compared to those in developed nations, residents in developing countries, especially the urban poor, are more severely impacted by unsustainably managed waste. In low-income countries, over 90% of waste is often disposed in unregulated dumps or openly burned. These practices create serious health, safety, and environmental consequences. Poorly managed waste serves as a breeding ground for disease vectors, contributes to global climate change through methane generation, and can even promote urban violence.

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Solid Waste Management

Compared to those in developed nations, residents in developing countries, especially the urban poor, are more severely impacted by unsustainably managed waste. 

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In low-income countries, over 90% of waste is often disposed in unregulated dumps or openly burned. These practices create serious health, safety, and environmental consequences. Poorly managed waste serves as a breeding ground for disease vectors, contributes to global climate change through methane generation, and can even promote urban violence.

World Bank

 

Around the world, waste generation rates are rising.

In 2016, the worlds’ cities generated 2.01 billion tonnes of solid waste, amounting to a footprint of 0.74 kilograms per person per day.

With rapid population growth and urbanization, annual waste generation is expected to increase by 70% from 2016 levels to 3.40 billion tonnes in 2050.

Compared to those in developed nations, residents in developing countries, especially the urban poor, are more severely impacted by unsustainably managed waste.

In low-income countries, over 90% of waste is often disposed in unregulated dumps or openly burned.

These practices create serious health, safety, and environmental consequences.

Poorly managed waste serves as a breeding ground for disease vectors, contributes to global climate change through methane generation, and can even promote urban violence.

Managing waste properly is essential for building sustainable and livable cities, but it remains a challenge for many developing countries and cities.

Effective waste management is expensive, often comprising 20%–50% of municipal budgets.

Operating this essential municipal service requires integrated systems that are efficient, sustainable, and socially supported.

Strategy

The World Bank finances and advises on solid waste management projects using a diverse suite of products and services, including traditional loans, results-based financing, development policy financing, and technical advisory.

World Bank-financed waste management projects address the entire lifecycle of waste—from generation to collection and transportation, and finally treatment and disposal.

Objectives that guide the Bank’s solid waste management projects and investments include:

·      Infrastructure: The World Bank provides capital investments to build or upgrade waste sorting and treatment facilities, close dumps, construct or refurbish landfills, and provide bins, dumpsters, trucks, and transfer stations.

·      Legal structures and institutions: Projects advise on sound policy measures and coordinated institutions for the municipal waste management sector.

·      Financial sustainability: Through the design of taxes and fee structures, and long-term planning, projects help governments improve waste cost containment and recovery.

·      Citizen engagement: Behavior change and public participation is key to a functional waste system. The World Bank supports designing incentives and awareness systems to motivate waste reduction, source-separation and reuse.

·      Social inclusion: Resource recovery in most developing countries relies heavily on informal workers, who collect, sort, and recycle 15%–20% of generated waste. Projects address waste picker livelihoods through strategies such as integration into the formal system, as well as the provision of safe working conditions, social safety nets, child labor restrictions, and education.

·      Climate change and the environment: Projects promote environmentally sound waste disposal. They support greenhouse gas mitigation through food loss and waste reduction, organic waste diversion, and the adoption of treatment and disposal technologies that capture biogas and landfill gas. Waste projects also support resilience by reducing waste disposal in waterways, addressing debris management, and safeguarding infrastructure against flooding.

·      Health and safety: The World Bank’s work in municipal waste management improves public health and livelihoods by reducing open burning, mitigating pest and disease vector spreading, and preventing crime and violence.

·      Knowledge creation: The World Bank helps governments plan and explore locally appropriate solutions through technical expertise, and data and analytics. What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050 captures the latest trends in waste management. 

The World Bank’s waste management engagement spans multiple development areas, including energy, environmental sustainability, food and agriculture, health and population, social protection, transportation, urban development, and water.

Results

Since 2000, the World Bank has committed over $4.7 billion to more than 340 solid waste management programs in all six regions of World Bank engagement.

Recent or committed infrastructure lending and technical assistance have supported numerous initiatives, including:

East Asia and the Pacific

·      In Indonesia, a $100 million loan will support a $1 billion national program to reform waste management practices for around 70 participating cities, impacting around 50 million people. The loan will support the strengthening of local policies and institutions, closure and rehabilitation of old and informal dumpsites, and installation of sustainable disposal sites including modern sanitary landfills with landfill gas collection mechanisms.

·      In China, a results-based incentive program has motivated household kitchen waste separation. The $80 million loan has also supported the construction of a modern anaerobic digestion facility to ferment and recover energy from organic waste, which will benefit 3 million people.

·      In Vietnam, investments in solid waste management are helping the city of Can Tho prevent clogging of drains, which could result in flooding. Similarly, in the Philippines, investments are helping Metro Manila reduce flood risk by minimizing solid waste ending up in waterways. By focusing on improved collection systems, community-based approaches, and providing incentives, the waste management investments are contributing to reducing marine litter, particularly in Manila Bay.

Europe and Central Asia

·      In Belarus, $25 million of a World Bank loan is supporting the introduction of a regional approach to solid waste management. The loan aims to support construction of regional waste management facilities and closure of relevant dumpsites, and provide technical assistance to the sector more broadly.

·      In Azerbaijan, World Bank loans supported the rehabilitation of the main landfill site and establishment of a state-owned waste management company, increasing the population served by the formal solid waste management system from 53% in 2008 to 74% in 2012. Support also led to further sustainable waste management practices, helping achieve a 25% recycling and reuse rate.

·      In Bosnia and Herzegovina, World Bank loans financed the rehabilitation of existing disposal sites, development of regional landfills, wild dump closures, and supportive equipment. Through the infrastructure investments and technical assistance on SWM issues, the loans helped increase access to the formal waste management system from 25% to 66% of the population.

Latin America and the Caribbean

·      In Argentina, $40 million in loans and grants helped to reduce and properly treat food waste through partnerships with food banks and retailers, close over 70 dumpsites, and construct 11 waste facilities.

·      In Sint Maarten, the World Bank is providing a $25 million grant for emergency debris management with a focus on dumpsite management, in addition to broader sectoral support. There is ongoing support to develop a national solid waste management strategy and investment plans to further develop the solid waste management sector in an integrated manner.

·      In Jamaica, community participation and waste collection services improved in 18 communities through results-based financing and infrastructure investments. Waste activities also led to job creation and contributed to a crime prevention and reduction program.

Middle East and North Africa

·      In Morocco, a series of Development Policy Loans totaling $500 million improved citizen engagement and transparency, strengthened private sector partnerships and accountability, increased fee collection, and supported better working conditions for—and the social inclusion of—20,000 informal workers.

·      In the West Bank, loans have supported the construction of three landfill sites that serve over 2 million residents, enabled dump closure, developed sustainable livelihood programs for waste pickers, and linked payments to better service delivery through results-based financing.

South Asia

·      In Nepal, a results-based financing project of $4.3 million increased user fee collection and improved waste collection services in five municipalities, benefitting 800,000 residents.

·      In Pakistan, a $5.5 million dollar project supported a composting facility in Lahore in market development and the sale of emission reduction credits under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Activities resulted in reductions of 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents and expansion of daily compost production volume from 300 to 1000 tonnes per day.

Sub-Saharan Africa

·      In Liberia, $10.5 million has been committed to improve waste collection and construct a new sanitary landfill and transfer stations. 

·      In Burkina Faso, the World Bank has supported the solid waste sector with over $67 million in loans since 2005, supporting waste sector planning and construction of two landfills. The capital city, Ouagdougou, now collects an average of 78% of waste generated, which is significantly higher than the 46% average in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Learn more about the World Bank’s work on solid waste management here.

Partners

World Bank engagement in solid waste management is supported through valuable partnerships, including funding from the Tokyo Development Learning Center, Climate and Clean Air Coalition, Korean Green Growth Trust Fund, and the Global Partnership on Results-Based Approaches (GPRBA), as well as collaboration on capacity building and knowledge sharing through a memorandum of understanding with the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA).

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/brief/solid-waste-management

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WATER IS SO ESSENTIAL FOR LIFE – Water is found everywhere on Earth, from the polar ice caps to steamy geysers. And wherever water flows on this planet, you can be sure to find life. But just why is water such a crucial molecule for life? And could there be other ingredients that also provide the perfect recipe for life on other planets? It turns out that several chemical properties of water make it indispensable for living creatures. Not only can water dissolve nearly anything, but it is also one of only a few materials that can exist as solid, liquid and gas within a relatively narrow range of temperatures. All life on Earth uses a membrane that separates the organism from its environment. To stay alive, the organism takes in important materials for making energy, while shuttling out toxic substances. Water is essential simply because it's a liquid at Earth-like temperatures. Because it flows, water provides an efficient way to transfer substances from a cell to the cell's environment. Water can carry things into and out of the cell — has to do with water's unique chemical configuration. The humble water molecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom. The way they're bonded together makes water this wonderful universal solvent, meaning that almost every substance can dissolve in water. Water, with its amazing dissolving properties, is the perfect medium for transmitting substances, such as phosphates or calcium ions, into and out of a cell.

These dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks (called recurring slope lineae) are flowing downhill on Mars, and are inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water. Recently, planetary scientists detected hydrated salts on these slopes at Hale crater, corroborating their original hypothesis that the streaks are indeed formed by liquid water. The blue color seen upslope of the dark streaks are thought not to be related to their formation, but instead are from the presence of the mineral pyroxene.

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Why Is Water So Essential for Life?

By Tia Ghose - Assistant Managing Editor 

Water. It's found everywhere on Earth, from the polar ice caps to steamy geysers. And wherever water flows on this planet, you can be sure to find life.

"When we find water here on Earth — whether it be ice-covered lakes, whether it be deep-sea hydrothermal vents, whether it be arid deserts — if there's any water, we've found microbes that have found a way to make a living there," said Brian Glazer, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who has studied astrobiology.

That's why NASA's motto in the hunt for extraterrestrial life has been "follow the water."

Yesterday (Sept. 28), NASA scientists announced they'd found it on Mars: Dark streaks that scientists have spotted seasonally for more than a decade in images of the Red Planet are evidence of flowing water, new research suggests.

While the briny flows may be too full of chlorine-based salts to support life, they do raise the odds that Mars could have life right now, the researchers said.

But just why is water such a crucial molecule for life? And could there be other ingredients that also provide the perfect recipe for life on other planets?

It turns out that several chemical properties of water make it indispensable for living creatures.

Not only can water dissolve nearly anything, but it is also one of only a few materials that can exist as solid, liquid and gas within a relatively narrow range of temperatures.

Flowing life

At heart, all life on Earth uses a membrane that separates the organism from its environment.

To stay alive, the organism takes in important materials for making energy, while shuttling out toxic substances such as waste products.

In this regard, water is essential simply because it's a liquid at Earth-like temperatures.

Because it flows, water provides an efficient way to transfer substances from a cell to the cell's environment.

By contrast, deriving energy from a solid is a much tougher prospect (though there are microbes that eat rock), Glazer said.

But the other part of the equation — that water can carry things into and out of the cell — has to do with water's unique chemical configuration.

The humble water molecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom.

"The way they're bonded together makes water this wonderful universal solvent," meaning that almost every substance can dissolve in water, Glazer told Live Science.

That's because the molecule has polarity, meaning the hydrogen atoms tend to bunch on one side of the molecule, creating a positive region, while the oxygen end has a negative charge.

The positive hydrogen end tends to attract negative ions (or atoms with an extra electron in the outer shell), while the negative region lures in positive ions (which have had one of their electrons stripped off).

Water, with its amazing dissolving properties, is the perfect medium for transmitting substances, such as phosphates or calcium ions, into and out of a cell.

Phases of water

Another feature of water is that it can act as a solid, liquid and gas within the range of temperatures that occur on Earth.

Other molecules that have been identified as good candidates for supporting life tend to be liquid at temperatures or pressures that would be inhospitable for most known life-forms, Glazer said.

"Water really is at that sweet spot," Glazer said.

The fact that water can be in all three phases in a relatively tight range of pressures creates many opportunities for life to flourish, he added.

"All three [states of water] available on our planet creates this really neat variety of habitats and microclimates," Glazer said.

For instance, frozen ice can be found in glaciers that carve through mountains, whereas water vapor helps warm the atmosphere, Glazer said.

Watery cradle of life

Water may be more than a fluid to help facilitate life's essential processes — it may also have been the protective cradle that carried the building blocks of life to Earth, said Ralf Kaiser, a physical experimental chemist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who has research experience in astrochemistry.

One theory for how life on Earth emerged, called panspermia, posits that icy comets smashed into Earth, bearing tiny organic molecules that formed the precursors to life.

But traveling through space is a harsh journey, with punishing levels of radiation that would normally degrade those delicate molecules, Kaiser said.

However, in its solid form, water could have provided a way to shield those molecules from radiation, Kasier speculated.

"One possibility is that because the building blocks are frozen within the water, it has this protective mantle around it that could be delivered," Kaiser told Live Science.

Accept some substitutes

Of course, while water is crucial to life on our home planet, there could be life-forms that don't conform to the Earthling playbook.

Scientists are also looking at other liquids that could play a similar role as universal solvent and transport medium.

Some of the top contenders are ammonia and methane, said Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

Ammonia, like water, is a polar molecule that is relatively abundant in the universe, but scientists haven't found any large bodies of ammonia anywhere in the solar system, McKay said.

Methane isn't polar, but it can dissolve many other substances.

Unlike water, however, methane becomes liquid only at very cold temperatures — at a frigid minus 296 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 182 degrees Celsius).

"We know that there are large lakes of liquid methane and ethane on Titan," one of the moons of Saturn, McKay told Live Science in an email.

"Thus there is keen interest is the question of whether life can use liquid methane/ethane."

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitterand Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Tia Ghose

Assistant Managing Editor

Tia has interned at Science News, Wired.com, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and has written for the Center for Investigative Reporting, Scientific American, and ScienceNow. She has a master's degree in bioengineering from the University of Washington and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California Santa Cruz.

https://www.livescience.com/52332-why-is-water-needed-for-life.html