Waste management systems impact on health and environment in developing countries

This paper aims to explain associations between some parameters that describe waste management systems at a city level and country parameters in relation to public health and environmental pollution in developing countries. This work reviews waste management systems from more than thirty urban areas in 22 developing countries in 4 continents It describes partly their waste management as answers to 122 questions that include information of public sources and general country characteristics. The data analysis was unable to provide convincing evidence of an association of waste management and the impact on health. Results revealed that cities with a bigger ecological footprint have more illegal dumping sites and less waste open burning at the household level. The results suggest that waste management systems are complex and multi-dimensional. The study didn’t consider epidemiological evidences concerning public health, and pollution of the studied cities due to nonexistence or unreliable reliable information. Instead, data on country performance indicators for public health (perinatal mortality, adult mortality, life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy, an economic indicator (Gross Domestic Product/capita) and environmental indicators (ecological footprint / capita and CO2-emission /capita were used. In addition, some other country characterization parameters were chosen (persons / km2, % urban population).