ABSTRACT
Solid waste management in developing countries is a serious challenge growing at an alarming rate. It is an important aspect of human life which when not properly managed affect not just the environment but human health. The study was therefore undertaken to assess the challenges of solid waste management in Kwara State: implication for a healthy environment. The study focused on five components of solid waste management in an attempt to ascertain the stage(s) where the challenges of solid waste management are inherent. Seven research questions were raised to guide the study and one was hypothesized.
The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised of two thousand (2,000) waste managers who are registered under the Kwara State Environmental Protection Agency (KWEPA). The systematic sampling technique was used in selecting four hundred (400) respondents from the waste managers’ attendance register using an interval k = 5. A researcher designed questionnaire which centered on the research questions and observation schedule which was validated by three (3) experts was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts in the Department of Health, Safety and Environmental Education. The reliability of the instrument was established by administering the questionnaire to twenty waste managers and subjected to Cronbach Alpha statistics which yielded a co-efficient of 0.805. Data obtained were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, mean score, standard deviation, line graph and bar charts for the research questions while one way repeated measure Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance.
Findings revealed among others that challenges are inherent in the storage, collection, transportation, segregation and disposal stages of solid waste management with mean scores of 16.1075, 17.1225, 17.5500, 16.5050 and 17.0750 respectively. The study also showed that there is a significant difference among the storage, transportation and segregation stages of solid waste management in Kwara State in contrast to the null hypothesis which stated that there is no significant difference in the various stages of solid waste management in Kwara State as revealed by the p – value of 0.0005. It was revealed that there is no significant difference between the collection and disposal stage of solid waste management. The study also revealed that solid waste management facilities and equipment are insufficient to cater for the volume of solid waste that is being generated on a daily basis and the collection frequency of solid waste atdifferent locations is insufficient. It was revealed in the findings that there was no formal recycling process in Kwara State except for scavengers who roam about the streets and dumpsites to pick materials that can be recycled. It was recommended that challenges of solid waste management should be addressed from source generation and residents should be educated and carried along appropriately in the decision making processes to improve on waste management. Waste management agencies should endeavor to increase the number of social workers per truck in order to improve the efficiency of waste collection.
