Critical evaluation of medical waste management policies, processes and practices in selected rural hospitals in the Eastern Cape
- Authors: Maseko, Qondile
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Hazardous wastes -- Management -- South Africa , Radioactive waste disposal -- South Africa , Medical wastes -- Management -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3373 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013107
- Description: This thesis critically evaluates the policies, processes and practices of medical waste management in selected rural hospitals in the Eastern Cape. Medical Waste Management is a growing public health and environmental issue worldwide. Research shows large scale incapacity in dealing with medical waste in an efficient and sustainable fashion globally, which demonstrates that it is not merely a developing world problem alone. This study is conducted against the backdrop of an increasing medical waste crisis in South Africa. Although there are an abundance of studies on solid waste management, there is a lack of data and research particularly on medical waste management in rural hospitals. The crisis of medical waste management in South Africa is closely intertwined with the collapsing health care system and an overburdened natural environment. It is an undisputable fact that South Africa’s generation of medical waste far exceeds its capacity to handle it effectively. This thesis argues that the neglect of medical waste as an environmental-health issue and the absence of an integrated national medical waste management plan aggravate the medical waste problem in the country. In explaining the medical waste crisis, this thesis adopts a Marxist perspective which is based on the premise that industrial capitalist societies place economic growth and production at high priority at the expense of the natural environment; creating a society that is engulfed by high health risk due to the generation of hazardous and toxic waste. Industrial societies view themselves as superior and separate from the natural environment, whereas one cannot separate nature from society as they are interlinked. As society attempts to adopt a sustainable environmental approach towards environmental management, science and technology are enforced as a solution to environmental problems in order to continue developing countries’ economies whilst sustainably managing and protecting the environment, which is contradictory. This thesis emphasises that medical waste management is a socio-political problem as much as it is an environmental problem, hence the need to focus on power relations and issues of environmental and social justice. The results of the study identified gaps in policy framework nationally and institutionally on medical waste management. In addition, there were poor waste management practices due to poor training, inadequate infrastructure and resources as well as poor budget support.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Real options valuation for South African nuclear waste management using a fuzzy mathematical approach
- Authors: Montsho, Obakeng Johannes
- Date: 2013 , 2013-06-06
- Subjects: Fuzzy mathematics , Real options (Finance) , Fuzzy sets , Business mathematics , Radioactive waste disposal -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:5398 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003051 , Fuzzy mathematics , Real options (Finance) , Fuzzy sets , Business mathematics , Radioactive waste disposal -- South Africa
- Description: The feasibility of capital projects in an uncertain world can be determined in several ways. One of these methods is real options valuation which arose from financial option valuation theory. On the other hand fuzzy set theory was developed as a mathematical framework to capture uncertainty in project management. The valuation of real options using fuzzy numbers represents an important refinement to determining capital projects' feasibility using the real options approach. The aim of this study is to determine whether the deferral of the decommissioning time (by a decade) of an electricity-generating nuclear plant in South Africa increases decommissioning costs. Using the fuzzy binomial approach, decommissioning costs increase when decommissioning is postponed by a decade whereas use of the fuzzy Black-Scholes approach yields the opposite result. A python code was developed to assist in the computation of fuzzy binomial trees required in our study and the results of the program are incorporated in this thesis. , KMBT_363 , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
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- Date Issued: 2013