Community participation in solid management issues and prospects of resource recovery in Rukungiri municipality.

Abstract

Human existence is dependent on the use of material resources some of which eventually become waste. The lack of management of solid waste as a resource, however, is of concern to Rukungiri Municipality administrators due to lack of incentives for direct community participation in beneficial utilization of components from the highly diversified solid waste stream. This study was carried out in Rukungiri Municipality which is located within Rukungiri District in South Western Uganda. The main objective was to provide information on the quality quantity of solid waste categories generated in the Municipality as this would be useful to determining cost effective uses to which solid waste would be put to use as incentives towards income generating and efficient SWM by Municipal authorities. A combination of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were employed where questionnaire interviews observations used gather the necessary primary data, while reference to relevant literature provided the study with the much needed secondary data. The findings revealed that the majority proportion of the respondents in Rukungiri Municipality exhibited concern and an amount. sensitivity about solid waste though separation of solid wastes is less adopted. The Municipality generates an estimated. solid waste figure of 8567.1 6 kilograms with a major composition of food stuff wastes (53.1%). The collection transfer, transportation and disposal of solid waste is currently done the Rukungiri Municipality and this shows the level of community participation in solid waste management in Rukungiri Municipality present is low. There is need to recognize residents as hosts of indigenous knowledge and get them involved in initial planning stages, deliberations and discussions so that they can see themselves as part of the decision-making structure thus coming up with various innovations in the management of solid waste in a sustainable way.