Critical Interconnectedness of Awareness, Waste Management and Infrastructure in Environmental Discourse and Practice

Awareness, waste management (WM) and infrastructure are closely linked issues of environmental sustainability. Perception levels shape household activities which have to do with waste generation, waste collection, waste disposal, and waste recycling. Urban, sub-urban and rural infrastructure in turn impacts WM. Botswana’s laudable vision 2036 to transform into a knowledge-based economy has implications for knowledge and for the gaseous, liquid, and solid environment. The objective of this study is to examine a few environmental issues that are germane to having a knowledge-based economy in the twenty-first century. The methodology is qualitative; hence data collection is through the desktop modality to source relevant orthographic and pictorial information from academic journals, books, pictures, and newspapers, etc. The issues are examined from the viewpoints of selected frameworks of environmental education, specifically those of behavioural change, personal change and social change. The procedure is also comparative between Botswana and other cross border urban, semi-urban, and rural geographic settings and experiences in Southern Africa (Durban, Cape Town), East and Central Africa (Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania), and West Africa (Lagos State, Ogun State, Osun State). The study found that an adequate level of awareness, the formulation and implementation of an effective WM policy, and the provision of basic infrastructure, are important requirements to drive a knowledge-based economy.