WASTE GENERATION AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

1.0   INTRODUCTION 

1.1        Background of the study

1.2        Statement of problem

1.3        Objective of the study

1.4        Research Hypotheses

1.5        Significance of the study

1.6        Scope and limitation of the study

1.7       Definition of terms

1.8       Organization of the study

CHAPETR TWO

2.0   LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPETR THREE

3.0        Research methodology

3.1    sources of data collection

3.3        Population of the study

3.4        Sampling and sampling distribution

3.5        Validation of research instrument

3.6        Method of data analysis

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

4.1 Introductions

4.2 Data analysis

CHAPTER FIVE

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Summary

5.3 Conclusion

5.4 Recommendation

Appendix

ABSTRACT

Waste management has become a common issue of discourse among individuals, groups and governments. This study assessed waste management in Akwa ibom state, with focus on Uyo. Two null hypotheses were formulated and tested using the chi square. The study used survey design whereby data were collected from the sample considered to be representative of the population, using questionnaires. Taro Yemeni’s formula was applied to determine the population. The data collected were presented in tables containing frequencies of the responses and their corresponding percentages: research finding shows that. The implications of improper waste management are that most households will soon be cut off by flood arising from the blockage of water channels, some streets and roads will be blocked by heaps of wastes and more epidemics will be contracted by the people if nothing urgent was done. The study concluded that, the Akwa Ibom State Environmental Protection Agency (AKSEPA) currently have no required manpower, technical skills and competences to curtail the tide of waste and therefore suit able recommendations were made at the end of the research.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The generation and disposal of waste is an intrinsic part of any developing or industrial society. Waste, both from domestic and commercial sources has grown significantly in Nigeria over the past decade. Every time a householder shops at the store, and open market he contributes to the mountain of waste. It is possible to quote figures which show that the production of waste amounts to millions of tons. The percent of Nigeria’s population living in cities and urban areas has more than doubled in the last 15 years.

The cities and urban areas experience continuous growth which contributes to enormous in generation of solid and liquid waste. The management of waste is a matter of national and international concern. The volume of waste does not actually constitute the problem but the ability or inability of governments, individuals and waste disposal firms to keep up with the task of managing waste and the environment. There is no doubt that a dirty environment affects the standard of living, aesthetic sensibilities, health of the people and thus the quality of their lives.

The corollary is that improper disposal or storage of this waste can constitute hazards to the society through the pollution of air, land and especially water. In this paper, our attention would be focused on domestic waste. We will highlight some of the problems which have attended the management of this category of waste in Nigeria today. It will be seen that Nigeria has not done well in the direction of tackling the menace of domestic waste. This is even in the face advanced management strategies existing today for domestic waste management which have been adopted in many places. We will proffer suggestions that may assist in addressing this issue that seems to be aborting most efforts of International organizations, the federal government, city authorities, states and professionals alike.

The defective strategies and arrangements adopted for solid waste management in Nigerian cities create the erroneous impression that urban waste management problems are intractable. This sterns from the fact that the rate of collection and evacuation perpetually lag behind the rate of generation which makes solid waste accumulation a major source of environmental nuisance in Nigerian cities. Waste management therefore, concerns the interplay among generation, storage, collection and final disposal (Omuta, 1988). Sada (1984) has observed that in 1980, on the average, a balance of 100 metric tons of solid waste are piled up daily in Benin City. This is because while about 350 metric tons of solid wastes are generated daily, the maximum rate of evacuation achievable was only 250 metric tons daily. Uchegbu (1988) remarked that big cities like Port harcourt, Lagos, Kano, etc in Nigeria produced on the average 46kg of solid waste per person, per day.

As living standards rise, people consume more and generate more waste. Right from 1990s Uyo city has metamorphosed into a resort center because of its congenial living environment which attracts an influx of weekend leisure seekers into the city. These leisure seekers merely come into Uyo to relax, consume and enjoy themselves every weekend thus contributing enormously to weekly waste generation in Uyo City. Atuegbu (2007) reports that between 500 and 850 metric tons of waste are generated daily in Uyo city. At Itam market, the rate of waste generation is so high that in one night, a refuse dump site that was cleared the previous day could be replaced with an equal volume of waste the following morning, thus creating the erroneous impression that it was never clear before. The scenario is the same at AkpanAdem market, area of Uyo Metropolis.

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Many people in African countries including Nigeria regard the concern for effective strategies for managing waste as a less important issue which may distract attention from the most urgent and serious problem of achieving a fast rate of economic growth. This attitude stems in part from the belief that environmental degradation with waste generation is an inevitable price of development.

Nigerian inhabitants are fast becoming more and more sophisticated with respect to their preferences and appetites and this improvement has its own attendant consequences. It has led to one of the most intractable problems of waste generation and management in Nigerian cities. Poor waste management is key factor in the spread of potential toxic compounds in the environment. When materials such as florescent tubes, batteries, paints, motor oil, detergent, television sets, computers, pesticides, insecticides, etc. are no longer useable or wanted, they become waste. Although the hazardous wastes only make up a small percentage of household waste in general, they pose a serious problem which ranges from health to environmental problems. These wastes are disposed alongside other household wastes. Separating the waste from the main waste, and treating it separately will prevent the major part of the waste from being contaminated and thus open up for an easier and less costly handling. The separation will leave a smaller, more concentrated amount of hazardous waste that could either be disposed of in a safe manner, or treated by special companies (Gatke, 2003).

Waste, when disposed of improperly, pose a threat to sanitation workers and the environment. Waste discarded in the trash may ignite or explode in the collection truck. Trash collectors can be injured from fumes and splashing chemicals. In landfills, leachate from the waste pollutes soil, surface water and groundwater reservoirs. Disposal of waste in drains can also pollute drinking water. In septic systems, hazardous waste can kill the organisms that make the system work. This may cause bulks of untreated waste to drain into the soil and eventually seep into the groundwater. Sewage treatment plants can be damaged by waste in the same way as septic systems (Connell, Lam Richardson, and Wu, 1999).

The problem of waste management is assuming an alarming proportion and calls for concern. Their disposals are global issues that engage the attention of scholars from various fields of study. In Uyo Metropolis, the current method of government- sponsored household waste disposal is bagging of waste and the use of Dump-stars. There are no separate facilities for collecting waste. The mixing of waste with other household wastes does not only pose problems of disposal but difficulty in monitoring the waste content, or estimating the extent of pollution risks at dumps.

There is the need to find out the practices the households adopt in managing waste in the study area, so as to evolve ways of improving such practices for the purpose of ensuring proper disposal for sustainable environment. It is this neglected aspect of environmental management that necessitated this study. However, this study is considered important because it is necessary to have knowledge of the types of waste generated, to examine the level of public awareness concerning waste, and an assessment of current management practices of waste in Uyo Metropolis.

• OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objectives of this study include;

1. know if there are strategies for managing waste generated in Uyo metropolis
2. To determine if there is a significant relationship between waste generation and management strategy.
3. Identify types of waste and their characterization in Uyo Metropolis.
4. Evaluate the level of awareness (health, environmental and disposal) of waste in the study area.
5. Assess the spatio-temporal frequency of waste generation in the study area.
6. Evaluate current management practices of waste, in the study area.
7. To suggest environmentally friendly management strategies for waste disposal in Uyo Metropolis.

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