Domestic solid waste management in Adjumani Town Council and the associated challenges

Abstract

Domestic solid waste management is becoming a major challenge in many urban centers of Uganda and Adjumani is not an exception. The research results in this report are from a study on the challenges of domestic solid waste management in Adjumani town council, determining the category of solid waste, characteristics, management practices and assessing the problems to domestic solid waste management. To achieve the objectives, the study used both quantitative and qualitative methods in sampling, data collection and data analysis in this study. The results indicated that the solid waste generated in the three wards were predominately biodegradable (81.8%), mostly consisting of food waste and non-biodegradable accounts for only (18.10%) where the central ward generate highest waste with high content of non-biodegradable waste partly because of its proximity to the Town centre and quantity generated per ward indicated that central ward generated 34.8%, this was followed by Biyaya which registered 34.4% and Cesia ward generated 30.6% quantity of waste respectively. While, the daily average households waste revealed 2.7 kgs for (Central ward), 2.3Kgs (Cesia) and 2.6Ks (Biyaya) and taking an average of 5 – 8 persons in a household, the generation rate was between 0.3Kgs – 0.5Kgs /person/ day. The results also indicated that the management practices employed by households include burning (80%), open space dumping (785), reuse/cycling (28%), composting (38%). The challenges, where households disposed their waste to an open-space dump sites/pits and burn the waste at households level is because the collection only existed in small portion of central wards which in this case is not adequate to meet the collection standard. This has been because of negative attitude, low rate of awareness and limited budget to effectively manage the solid waste in the entire areas of the Town Council. The researcher recommended for mobilization of financial resources, mass sensitization and emphasis on the reuse and recycling of solid waste so as to ameliorate waste management in the Town Council.