Capacity building for post disaster waste management : research methodological perspective

Abstract

Every year newspapers and television screens are dominated at some point by a natural disaster of international concern. In a disaster, generation of waste is unavoidable. This causes serious environmental and economic burden on normal living conditions, reconstruction as well as on general municipal waste collection processes. Within this context, waste management has emerged as a critical issue in responding to a disaster. This became a critical issue in Sri Lanka which was heavily affected by Asian Tsunami 2004. This was mainly due to inexperience, incapacity and lack of concentrated and effective planning and monitoring processes. In this context, it is vital to explore the capacities which need to be enhanced for effective post disaster waste management at national level in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this paper addresses research methodological aspects underpinning of this research looks into capacity building for post disaster waste management within the Sri Lankan context. Further, the paper illustrates how the philosophical issues such as epistemology, ontology and axiology directed the use of case studies as the suitable research approach. Case study design considerations associated with this research will also be discussed