| Summary: | This thesis presents four case studies as examples of how different countries
around the world deal with their disaster waste management. These case
studies are the Great East Japan Earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, Sri Lanka
earthquake and tsunami, and finally man-made conflicts. Disaster solid
waste management is not old in the management planning. In the past, the
countries facing disasters used to struggle, and they focused more on
removing the debris from streets and sensitive places like main roads and
hospitals. However, they did not really have any plan about how to deal
with the generated waste and debris, where the stressful situation of the
emergency phase right after the disaster made the case even more
complicated.
Disasters can generate extremely massive amount of debris and waste
depending on its nature and the affected area’s nature. Additionally, there
will be also the daily generated waste, which means that disasters will
significantly affect all life aspects, especially the economy. Therefore it is
important to have a well prepared disaster waste management plan to limit
the potential damage and to minimize the cost and the time needed for the
recovery phase. Moreover, the waste and debris in the affected area will
cause a significant environmental impact. Therefore, the responsible
authorities have to manage the disaster waste sustainably and work on
bringing the area to an environmentally accepted situation.
By presenting different methods of disaster solid waste management in
four different countries, it will be possible to spot the best practices and the
wrong practices in the management system. The removal of debris is the
most important factor at the emergency phase in the waste management, as
it will help reaching the victims and prevents the spread of diseases.
However, the authority should be prepared with the place of where to take
the debris and waste, and what to do with them in the next stages. In this
thesis more detailed information about the disaster solid waste management
practices will be explained to clarify the fundamental differences in facing
different types of catastrophes in countries with different levels of
development.
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