Capacity building for post disaster waste management: research methodological perspective

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.