Waste disposable methods and challenges among households in selected communities within the Kumasi Metropolis
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Date
September, 2019
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Abstract
Background: Poor waste management remains a major obstacle to many developing
countries including Ghana. One of the major environmental problems in Kumasi Metropolis
is poor waste management which impede one‟s health. Waste management Department of the
Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and Zoomlion Ghana Limited are usually responsible for
waste management in the Metropolis but have challenges to provide an effective and efficient
services to the households due insufficient funding and with this, households face many
challenges when disposal of waste. It is therefore indisputable the fact that for households to
safeguard, control and promote the environment there must be some facilities responsible for
waste management.
Objectives: To assess waste disposable methods and challenges among households in
selected communities within the Kumasi Metropolis.
Methods: Case study design and Cross-sectional design was adopted for this study. The
sample size of 308 households was estimated for collection of quantitative and qualitative
data for this study.
Results: All respondents in the three selected communities used house-to-house solid waste
collection as their major method of waste disposal as compare to the use of central communal
containers. It was recorded that over 70% of the households used house-to-house method of
waste collection with less than 30% of the households using central communal containers as a
means of disposing their waste due to limited disposing facilities. Households in the selected
communities revealed the challenges they faced which includes delay in waste collection,
absence of sensitization of the public on issues of management of solid waste, inadequate
refuse containers, lack of households‟ awareness on reducing, recycling and sorting of waste,
poor attitude of households towards waste handling and ineffective waste management laws.
Also over 50% of the respondents bemoaned that the fees charge for disposal of waste was
high.
Conclusion: The preference of house-to-house solid waste collection to the use of central
communal containers as a means of disposing waste was attributed to the fact that house-tohouse waste collectors are experts and therefore there are some consistency in their waste
collection services. Again the patronage of house-to-house service to central communal
containers waste collection by households was due to the same amount charge for disposing
of waste on daily basis. Moreover, there was a lot of pressure on the central communal
containers as two communal containers severs about 560 households in Kotei, 426 in Oduom
and 345 in Bomso. This confirms the difficulties households face in attempt to dispose of
waste.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Health Education and Promotion, College of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science of Public Health in Health Promotion and Education.
Keywords
Waste disposable, Challenges, Households, Kumasi Metropolis