Sustainable Resources Management Journal

01-09

Authors: Weston D. Sakala and Stephania Moyo

The purpose of this research was to determine the contribution of solid waste recycling companies to the job market in Zambia. A comprehensive database of patents and company registration agency for thirty-four companies working with waste recycling in Zambia was used. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. The results revealed that recycling companies create job opportunities and environmental benefits. The study has also established that recycling industry is growing rapidly. However, the sector has a lot of challenges e.g. the poor status of machinery. Old technologies have made the industry structure more costly to operate at full capacity. There was no significant difference (p >.05) in job creation between companies using old and new technologies (p = 0.635). Similarly, there was no significant difference (p >.05) in contribution to job creation between paper and plastic recycling (p = 0.456). However, there was a significant (p<.05) difference in efficiency between old and new technologies

01-14

Authors: Weston D. Sakala and Jacob Mwitwa

Donors have played a significant role in the environmental sector in Zambia. They have over the years provided financial and technical resources for environmental management. Purposive stratified sampling was employed in selecting the respondents for the study. The sample population of the study consisted of government departments, statutory bodies, donors, non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations. The research employed semi-structured and key informant interviews, focus group discussions, field observations, and review of existing literature. The results revealed that policy making and implementation was an expensive implementation hence government depended on external financial and at a foreign technical support. As a result of inadequate resources, most policies in the environmental resources sector had not been reviewed for some time. Other challenges in policy making include; conflict of interests among different stakeholders and weak linkages between research and policy making. Public policies in the developing countries possess certain challenges and peculiarities of their own. It is as a result of these various challenges that most developing countries need donor support when making and implementing.This compromises environmental resource governance and consequently, there is a high probability of donor driven policies influencing how environmental resources are managed as the new policies have the potential to reflect a broad range of international interests at the expense of local interest.

01-10

Authors: Khaldoon Al-whoosh, Mohammad Aljaradin, Raed Bashitialshaaer and Hisham Balawneh

An experiment for salinity-gradient solar pond has been constructed and operated at the Dead Sea area over a period of 3 months. The pond has a volume of 5m3 with dimensions of (L, H, W) as 2.0m, 2.0m and 1,25m respectively. The two parameters temperature and salinity concentration profiles were evaluated through the measurements of the solar pond with respect to time. The experimental result shows that the bottom layer has a higher temperature and it reached a maximum temperature of 85 ℃ after 100 hour of operating. In this experiment, the thermal insulation for the pond was successful to keep the boundaries isolated that made it possible to extract the thermal energy stored in the bottom zone during the day time, continuously, while maintaining the stability of the solar pond. The total cost of the pond was about $35/sqm, in which the cost of the salt represents 45% of the total cost of the solar pond which is relatively cheap. Therefore, constructing the ponds close to the Dead Sea area is a cheaper alternative. Resulting low cost of utilizing thermal energy that could be a valuable option for multistage flash desalination plant that is functioning below 100 ℃. The operation of this pond reveals that solar pond technology in the Dead Sea area, as compared with other methods of using solar thermal energy for power generation, is more efficient especially for the utilities where direct thermal energy is required.

01-15

Authors: Aboniyo, Josiane, Umulisa, Diane, Bizimana, Anthere, Kwisanga, Jean Marie Pascal, & Mourad, Khaldoon

The rapid population growth increases water demand and affects water allocation systems as well as water resources management plans to satisfy the basic water needs for both human and nature. This has called upon the adoption of the integrated water resources management (IWRM) approach which promotes the coordination and management of water, land and related resources to maximize the economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the ecosystem. Water management and the implementation of IWRM approach cannot be achieved without proper working institutions that can coordinate and manage the implementation strategies. The aim of this paper is to establish a national water resources management authority in Rwanda that will manage and coordinate the national water resources in a sustainable way taking the water resources management bodies in Rwanda, in comparison with the Kenyan water resources management bodies as a good example. An extensive review was conducted using governmental documents, and key institutional elements were analyzed by evaluating their performance in comparing with the Kenyan institutions. The paper revealed that Rwandan water resources management is a fragmented way and the level of control is sophisticated without taking into consideration the management of water resources at a catchment level, which affects the coordination, management and the implementation of water policies. The results show that most of the water laws and policies in Rwanda should be changed and establish the Rwandan water resources management Authority that has the power to control and coordinate the water resources implementation policies.

01-13

Authors: Mohammad Aljaradin and Raed Bashitialshaaer

AL-Karama dam, the second largest dam in Jordan, was constructed in the Jordan valley area in the year 1979. Currently, the dam holds about 72% of its designed storage capacity with total dissolved solids concentration of 2.2%. The dam water was designed to irrigate 100 km2 of new reclaimed areas and to provide drinking water for more than 30,000 residences. In this work, solar desalination system was suggested. The suggested innovative solution is designed to increase the dam efficiency and to increase water availability annually by 3.3 MCM in phase one to reach 9.2 MCM in the final plan. Furthermore to increase the irrigated areas by 20% in Jordan valley area. Considering the water availability, population and costs, small-scale solar desalination plant with reverse osmosis membrane is recommended.