Waste management is undoubtedly one of the major challenges facing urban centers in most parts of the world. Actually, decision makers from rapidly emerging and developing economies are faced by difficulty with regard to waste management. The residents of these cities are generating waste that is becoming challenging for the councils to manage.
Managing solid waste effectively is essential in having a competitive, productive and a healthy city. Notably, solid waste and waterways are the chief propagators of infectious diseases in the cities and urban areas throughout. These two provide a healthy environment for diseases causing micro-organizations.
Meanwhile, effective waste management plays a significant role in attracting investors to any city or urban area. Additionally, tourists are attracted by cities that have profound waste management authorities in place. Therefore, failure to manage solid waste effectively can result to of revenue and investments.
Having said that, it is important we look at the best way to improve solid waste management in urban areas. Now, the solution to effective waste management is through the involvement of technology. In the 21st century technology has become the solution to almost every problem faced by different institutions or organizations. When we talk of technological involvement in improving management of solid wastes in cities and urban areas, we are referring to enterprise resource planning (ERP).
Before we discuss ways through which enterprise resource planning can solve problems associated with solid waste planning and management, it is important we look at issues faced by solid waste management bodies.
Typical solid waste management issues
Issues facing solid waste management can be divided into;
a) The collection of solid waste and sweeping of streets.
• Failure of enough comprehensive solid waste collection services in every urban center
• Slow collection of solid waste from the cities and urban areas
• Waste accumulation in squatter settlement areas, streets leading to blockage of drainage systems.
• Low levels of solid waste collection services
b) Disposal of the collected waste
• The main way of dumping waste in most urban centers and cities is by dumping.
• People are against the idea of having dumping sites near their homes
• Availability of different waste disposal companies claiming to have solutions to solid waste disposal
• Land shortage for new dumping site to take care of increases solid waste from urban centers.
• The available dumping sites are a concern for environmental, political, public safety as well as health reasons.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the solution to these issues affecting urban centers and cities. In order to understand how enterprise resource planning can improve planning and management of solid wastes in urban centers read on. Enterprise resource planning through the Internet of Things (IoT) helps municipal councils improve solid waste management through the following ways.
i. Improved Information and Data management
The process of solid waste management involves information collection from different cities as well as dumping sites. The gathered information ought to be stored securely for informed future decisions. Through enterprise resource planning software gathered information can be kept secure.
It is important to safeguard the information because it helps the municipal council in progressive solid waste management. Additionally, due to the fact that a lot of information and data is continuously gathered, there is the need for an easy way of updating this information without distorting the previous one. This is only possible through technology (software). All the municipal council needs to do is feed the new information in the already created spreadsheets easing the whole process.
ii. Enhanced monitoring and evaluation of solid waste management services.
Through gathered information with regard to different urban centers and cities, the municipal council is capable of monitoring and evaluating solid waste management services offered by different companies. In fact, through photography, it is possible for the council to tell if the companies are offering quality services to city and urban center resident with regard to solid waste collection and dumping. The information brought by the companies can be compared with what is already in the system.
iii. Enhanced information sharing between the council and residents
Through websites and apps, residents are capable of sharing first-hand information to the council. The council can, therefore, use the gather and analyze the information and make informed decisions regarding solid waste management in different places.
iv. Opinion Gathering capabilities through online comments
Municipal councils are capable of gathering resident views regarding waste dumping sites before making the final decision. Notably, finding a new place for a dumping site is not easy and this cannot be done without considering the opinion of the resident. Gathering this information could be tedious and time-consuming without the help of technology.
Technological advancement makes everything simple. All the municipal council needs to do is create an online questionnaire and from there they can collect data from different urban centers and cities easily. The most important this is to ensure that the public is informed about the websites and other online forums.
v. Improved information and idea sharing between councils
Sharing of ideas and information is very important in improving management of solid waste. Borrowing ideas from others is always noble in management. If someone has succeeded in doing something it is good to borrow a leaf from them. Technology has eased the sharing of ideas between organizations.
It is possible to inquire on something from another person in a distant place through the internet. It only requires one to send an email. New ideas play a significant role in improving the performance of a given organization. Actually, management is a comprehensive undertaking and requires consultation. On the other hand, information from subordinate staff is easily conveyed to the managers through the use of technology. Regardless of the location of an employee he/she can send data to their employer through the use of various computer software and apps.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software plays a significant role in improving management of solid waste in urban centers and cities. This is essential in improving the living conditions for the residents. Through technology what seemed hard has been made simple nowadays. Actually, benefits of enterprise resource planning are limitless. Municipal councils are able to improve the way they manage solid waste through the above-discussed ways.