An Assessment of the Management of Garbage Collection and Waste Disposal in Imo State
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
- To identify the current condition of household waste in Nigeria.
- To identify the waste management policy in Nigeria?
- To know the effective means to reducing waste in Nigeria at the present stage
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
EMPIRICAL REVIEW
This research focuses on household waste management with the concept of sustainable development. Sustainable development is a concept which is originated in the 1970s when developed world undertook massive development project in terms of cutting and clearing forests and constructing high rising buildings and spacious highways. This concept began to think about in the 1970s then brought to Brundtland Commission Report in 1987 by United Nations. Sustainable Development defines as development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs (Brundtland Commission Report, 1987).
One cause of waste problem in a country, including Nigeria and Malaysia is due to increasing population. With the increasing population, the consumption activities that generate waste also increased. It is required the handling of government and community participation in household waste issues.
There is drastically increase on waste every 10 years in Malaysia since 1970 until 2006 and organic waste has the biggest amount on waste generated in Malaysia.
Malaysia government made some way in addressing the waste problem. Until the late 1970s they used simple way to manage the waste, at that time the local district health offices only clean up the streets of waste and was brought to the open dumping facilities have been provided.
Along with increasing waste generated later in the 1990s, government takes the initiative to privatize the handling of waste management. In addition, the government also conducted a campaign to Malaysian society about cleanliness and public health such about waste and its problems. The objective of privatization is providing an integrated, effective, efficient, and technologically advanced solid waste management system.
But without public participation, the program will not be performing well.
In 1988, the government introduced the Action Plan for a Beautiful and Clean (ABC) Malaysia, and recycling campaigns. Campaign program is going well, which is marked by the results of a survey in 1999 that 59% of respondent were moderately aware with some basic knowledge and were mildly alert to the management of solid waste [1]. Campaign can be one tool to give sense to the public about the waste and its problem.
In order to manage solid waste in Malaysia, the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 (SWPCM Act 2007) was passed as law in 2007. The Act is administered by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. This Act is focused on public cleanliness management through 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle). Producing vermicompost is one of the ways Malaysian to reduce the volume of organic waste.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Handling of waste through reduce, reuse and recycle can increase the resource productivity. In this case the waste is something that has value in order to serve as a resource for other products. With the increase in resource productivity can reduce the use of natural resources and reduce waste. If that framework could be realized it could lighten ecological damage, promote environment friendly and sustainable society.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
STUDY AREA
The study was conducted in Owerri State which is one of the 27 local government areas of Imo State located in the south eastern part of Nigeria. Owerri State is traditionally called Owerri Nchi Ise and has five indigenous kindreds which are: Umuorioronjo, Amawon, Umuonyiche, Umuodu and Umuoyima in the order of seniority. It is bounded in the North by Amakohia, on the North East by Uratta, on the East by Egbu, on the South East by Naze, on the South by Nekede and on the North West by Irette. It has on average temperature of about 27˚C (80˚F) Its vegetation is typically rain forest (although some parts consist of Guinea Savanna due to poor environmental management and pollution). According to the census result of 2006 conducted in the country, Owerri State has a population of 127,213 inhabitants with about 17,000 households including shops and offices. Its inhabitants are mainly civil servants, traders and farmers who are predominantly native .
Study population
The population that was studied comprised of members of about 200 households in Owerri State. The study included households who are residents in Owerri State for atleast a period of one year.
Sample size determination
The sample size was calculated using Cochrane formular:
N = z2pq/d; A minimum sample size of 280 was calculated, though the study sample size of 308 was obtained after the addition of an assumed 10% attrition.
Study design
This was a descriptive cross sectional survey on the pattern of household waste management practices among residents of Owerri State, Imo State, Nigeria. Both self and interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaires were used.
Sampling techniques
The study was done using a multi stage sampling technique as follows: The 5 indigenous kindred served as the sampling frame from which 3indigenous kindred were selected using a simple random sampling technique. The 3 selected kindred were namely; Umuorioronjo, Umuonyiche and Umuoyima. Next, 3 residential areas (RAs) from each indigenous kindred were selected using a simple random sampling technique which gives a total of 9 RAs as follows; Aladinma, Prefab, Louise Mbanefo, Ikenegbu, Douglas, Tetlow, Njemanze, Works Layout and New Owerri. By a simple random sampling method, the first household in each residential area was selected and the households were subsequently followed alternatively until all the households were exhausted.
Materials and process
The research instrument used was a semi-structured questionnaire which was constructed based on the research topic and objectives: Section A consisted of bio-data of the respondent while section B consisted of questions to assess their level of awareness and knowledge of waste management. Section C was aimed at assessing their attitude towards waste management. Section D consisted of questions to assess the type of waste management practiced and the means of transporting waste from collection centers to final disposal site.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Results, Tables and Figures
Three hundred and eight questionnaires were distributed but only 282 were collected and analyzed giving a response rate of 92%.
Table 1 shows that 43.9% (124) of the population were between the ages of 21 – 30 years and 3.9% (11) were
<20 years. Females were made up of 63.8% (180) of the respondents while 36.2 (102) were males. Also 97.2%
(274) were Christians while 60.3% (170) had tertiary education.
In Table 2, majority of the respondents 90.1%, (254) were aware of waste management. Open dumping was the most popular method of waste disposal known to the respondents 279 (98.9%), followed by Burning 94.7% (267). Incineration recorded the least known waste disposal method. Majority of the respondents 97.5% (275) agreed that proper waste disposal can better their health and 98.9 agreed that the practice of waste management is of great importance. Also 99.3% (280) of respondents specified that waste management promotes good health and healthy environment. Majority of the respondents 91.5% (258) do not have licensed waste management firm in their area while only 5% (14) reported the presence of waste management policy in their local government. On overall attitude rating, 79.8% (225) had excellent attitude while 18.4% (52) had good attitude towards waste management.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusion
As I have already mentioned in chapter 1 the objective of my study is to analyze influence of economic force in order to awaken citizen’s awareness and reduce waste.
To reach the main objective, there will be some question to be considered, they are:
- How is current condition of household waste in Nigeria?
- How is the waste management policy in Nigeria?
- What is an effective means to reducing waste in Nigeria at the present stage? Is an economic measure the effective means to waste reduction: about its theoretical ground?
The limitation on this research is lack of data about waste history, waste management and waste problem in Nigeria especially statistical data. The only data that can be obtained about the condition of solid waste management in Nigeria along with the statistical data are from the Ministry of the Environment. After doing analysis in the previous chapter about waste management, I proposed solution to waste problem in Nigeria.
Current condition of household waste in Nigeria
Nigeria faced waste problem. The amount of waste is increasing at a rate of between 2-4% each year. And the greatest amount is obtained from organic waste followed by plastics, papers, woods, glasses, rubber, fabrics, metals, and the last one is sand/inert material. To overcome this urgent the waste problem the government established policy on waste management, Waste Management Law No 18, 2008.
Data obtained from Nigerian Domestic Solid Waste Statistic in 2008 stated that method in handling waste in household area is still applying end of pipe approach. This data was collected before the issue of waste management law. End of pipe approach means that waste in housing area is collected by sanitary agency staff, then transported to temporary disposal site or final disposal site without further treatment.
Waste which is left piled up on the final disposal sites which apply open dumping system, causes problems for the environment around the final disposal site area such as health hazard. But in some areas composting and recycling method has began to be practiced in order to treat the waste.
In reality there are some obstacles encountered in order to solve the garbage problem:
- The first problem is population. In general, the population continuously increases which would bring an increase of community paradigm
- Community paradigm still remains that waste is an undesirable and useless thing and the fact accounts for the negative involvement of community and the public in waste handling.
- Limited budget waste program is financed by local government.
- Limited facilities and method to treat the waste treatment facilities are too much limited and the methods of treatment are also limited and not diversified.
- Waste management actors have less experience therefore there are insufficient of knowledge and training in waste management.
Waste management policy in Nigeria
Waste management law in Nigeria was recently issued in 2008, named Waste Management Law no 18, 2008. Prior to the Waste Management Law issued, there was no laws regulating the waste management specifically, and previously the law discussed about the environmental issues and hazardous waste.
There are some issues underlying the law, there is increasing population and waste becomes national problem. Based on the law of No. 18 year 2008, the purpose of the law is to improve public health and environmental quality and make waste as a resource. The laws mentioned that waste management is through reduction and waste handling. This law regulate about Authority and Duty of government, Rights and Obligation, Licensing, Implementation of Waste Management, Compensation and financing, Cooperation and partnership, Community Role, Prohibition, Supervision, Administration Sanctions, Dispute Settlement, Investigations, Penal Provisions and other provisions.
It is expected that with the establishment of the laws will be able to increase public awareness in waste handling. Other than that the government should really apply what is already contained in the laws to achieve the purpose of these laws
Economic measure is an effective means to reducing waste in Nigeria at the present stage, about its theoretical ground.
In chapter 5 discussion I try to give suggestions for waste reduction in Nigeria. There are three cases, the first is free of waste commission, then the second case is a waste commissions are paid on a fixed price regardless of the amount of waste, type, etc. And the last case is the specific waste commission regarding the amount of waste, type, etc. The last case is the best even though illegal dumping of garbage may be unavoidable to some extent. Because specific charge for waste disposal is indirectly affect to the citizen’s habit and reduce waste amount.
Recommendations
In relation to the findings outlined in this research and the interpretation of the infromation obtained, the following recommendations are proposed:
- Imo state Council should consider to engage more than one private Contractor in order to manage collection and disposal of solid waste generated daily in Imo state district
- Awereness on solid waste collection and disposal should be supplemented by penalties to those who violet the bylaws set by State Council
- iii. Imo state Council should engage a private contractor who has higher level of capacity including having appropriate vehicles for solid waste collection and disposal.
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