Domestic solid waste segregation and collection practices in Bwaise Slum, Kawempe Division Kampala District
Abstract
The rapid population growth in urban centers has continued to amplify the challenge of solid waste management at both global and regional levels. At the global level, the already high rate of solid waste generated is expected to increase by 70%, by 2050. Wastes are associated with multiple challenges, degrade the urban environment, reduce the aesthetic value, produce offensive odors during the rains, floods and pollute the air, and illegal dumps on the streets. Due to insufficient data about domestic solid waste segregation and collection practices where there is continued accumulation of domestic solid wastes in trenches is due to poor waste management at the household level, blockage of drainage channels, and the spread of diseases, and death in the area. The study was conducted based on the following study objectives: assessing waste segregation practices, understand local perceptions on segregation of, waste and assessing the effect of awareness creation on waste segregation behavior s in Bwaise Slum, Kawempe Division Kampala District.
Primary data was collected using a questionnaire to the randomly selected households, measuring different components and then weighed separately plastics, paper, and metal, organic interviewing with a questionnaire after their wastes guided by both structured and unstructured questions. From the results, the majority of the respondents were females (63%) and the rest were males (37%) with four waste collection Types Street dumping, door to door, curbside and block street dumping and door to door waste collection attributing 50% each. source of income was highly reported with a percentage of 95.2%, clean environment (90.5%) and then waste minimization (76.2%) as the major importance of waste segregation perceptions. The study revealed that waste segregation information source was from radios (43.3%), workshops (36.7%), schools (13.3%) and televisions (6.7%) and were mostly used by females as compared to males. These sources of information were also most used by people in age category of 21-30 years as compared to other age categories. Television and schools were mainly used by the people from Bwaise 1 and 2 whereas radios and workshops were mainly used by people from Bwaise 3 and 4. Result showed that the waste generated from the Bwaise slum area over 50% plastics of the total waste collected plastics. However, though modest improvement has been registered in the middle of the city centre, a lot has to be done to keep the entire waste of the city equally clean to prevent serious diseases that accrue as a result of uncollected refuse. The study recommended that appropriate technologies in line with the nature of garbage generated needs to be explored and massive awareness should be made to enlighten households about organizing their wastes and encourage recycle and re use of plastics