Geotechnical and Environmental Engineers face the challenge of managing ever-increasing quantities of mine and municipal solid waste, including disposal, rehabilitation of depositories and long term maintenance and monitoring. Waste management is a long-term process that may be required to continue for centuries into the future, as there are no walk-away solutions to the maintenance of waste depositories. Climates that are water-deficient, to various degrees, cover 65 percent of the inhabited Earth. In some ways, waste management is simplified by a water-deficient climate, in others it is made more difficult. After describing the characteristics and arising of mine waste (MW) and municipal solid waste (MSW), the paper proceeds to describe selected aspects of waste management in water-deficient climates, including: (1) water retentivity, (2) shear strength and slope stability, (3) erosion of waste depository surfaces, and (4) settlement of MW backfill and MSW landfill.