Community-based solid waste handling and payment practices as effective strategies towards efficient urban solid waste management case of area municipality.

Abstract

Solid waste management is a worldwide phenomenon. It is a big challenge all over the world for human beings. The problem of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is also prevailing in the urban environment of Arua Municipality. This study was conducted in Arua municipality, Arua district during the month of January 2018. The Municipality is divided into two divisions, of which River Oli division has a population that is predominantly of a low income and Arua Hill division is a high income area. In Arua town, the majority of the population is involved mostly in commercial and petty trading. The people who live in the surrounding areas depend mainly on subsistence agriculture. The general objective of the study was to develop solid waste management strategies for Arua Municipality and the specific objectives were to determine the reasons for the current solid waste storage, processing, collection and disposal activities practiced by the community of Arua Municipality, the problems accrued to the community consequent to the different types of solid wastes generated within the Municipality, the community's willingness to pay for processing of the solid wastes they generated and the type of inputs by management required to eliminate indiscriminate solid waste damping sites in the municipality. A pilot study was done to ensure that questions were valid, answerable and if they could generate data related to the objectives. The final questionnaires were administered to different respondents in six wards and two divisions. Observations. interacting with people and authentic record of Municipal Corporation. Data collected was entered and analyzed using Microsoft Excel to obtain a descriptive Statistics. It was found that the food remains are the most common solid wastes generated, followed by polythene and plastics. Most of the respondents do not sort their solid wastes and they dispose of their solid wastes in the rubbish pit. The most faced problems from the solid wastes are of foul smell and littering of the place. Female respondents were willing to pay compared to males. Respondents who faced problems, especially business people and housewives due to solid wastes generated were willing to pay for its management compared to the students and caterers who did not face them.