CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
One of the major problems confronting Nigerian towns and cities today is poor solid wastes disposal practice among the residence in the cities. Human environment needs to be kept clean. The 7th goal of the Millennium Development is to ensure clean environmental sustainability. In spite of the efforts made by the government to tackle the problem, there has been no remarkable solution. Solid waste is generated at a rate beyond the capacity of the cities and authorizes to handle in order to maintain a sustainable urban environment. The rate of the solid waste generation in Nigeria has increased with the rapid urbanization. This has resulted in solid waste disposal practices that portends serious environmental crisis in most Nigerian towns and cities. The pursuit of environmental sustainability is an essential part of human well-being as identified by the United Nations Environmental Programme (Abankwa, 2004). However, waste generation is an inevitable phenomenon so long as man is in existence. The condition and rate of waste generation in the developed and developing countries are quite different. Although, the developed countries generate more wastes than the developing ones due to extraction from the manufacturing industries process, they have competent government institutions and facilities to handle their wastes (Abrokwah, 2001). Nigeria been among the developing countries on the other hand are market-oriented. The residents of Nigeria cities such as Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Enugu, Anambra, and dump refuse indiscriminate along the streets, roads, in open spaces, market places, frontage of the residential buildings and drainage system. this result in an unsightly mountain of refuse that have become a common feature of Nigeria’s urban landscape(Ogboni and Okosun 2003) therefore the level of solid waste disposal practice in residential building in Nigeria is often considered as among the poorest in the world.
Regardless of the context, solid waste management is one of the biggest challenges of the urban area of all sizes, from mega cities to the small towns and large villages which are homes to the majority of human kind. The quality of waste management services is good indicator of a city’s governance. The way in which waste is produced and discarded gives us a key insight into how people live.
In fact if a city is dirty, the local administration may be considered ineffective or its residents may be accused of littering. In high-coming countries, the problems usually centre on the difficulties and high cost of disposing of the large volume of the waste generated by the households. In low-income countries, the main problems are related to collection and disposal where one third to half of all solid waste generated and remain uncontrolled. The increase of solid waste generation creates more environmental problems in developing countries as main cities are not able to manage it due to institutional regulatory financial, technical and public participation short comings; This situation has led to great degradation of the environment resulting in several health problems (Adesiyan, and Leite, 2007).
The environmental degradation due by improper solid waste management system can be expressed the contamination of surface groundwater through leachate, soil contamination through direct waste contact or leachate, air pollution by burning of waste, spreading of disease by different vector like birds insect and rodent or uncontrolled released of methane by anaerobic decomposition of waste. (Coinreau 2012) state that the heaps of refused provide excellent breeding grounds for vectors of communication diseases including rodents, insects, etc. which increase the potential for spread of infectious disease. Waste means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded materials including solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material, resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, and from community activities source (Adewumi and Adepetu, 2005). The household waste composed of organic or food waste (vegetables and fruits waste, leftover food, fish and meat waste) and the inorganic includes plastic and polythene bags, paper and cardboard waste, glass and ceramic waste and other waste such metal waste clothes etc. Something can become a waste when it is no longer useful to the owner or it is uses has fails to fulfill its purpose (Agunwamba, 2002).
According to a research conducted by (Adetola, 2010), in his study of Calabar town he identified different types of solid waste disposal ranging from garbage, rubbish, medical wastes, bulk wastes, street wastes, animal wastes, construction/demolition wastes and special wastes.
Residential waste include food waste, food container and packer can, bottles, papers newspaper, clothes, garden waste, e-wastes, furniture waste etc.
Wastes can be categorized in four forms: Solid, liquid, semi- solid and gaseous waste.
Solid waste disposal constitutes one of the environmental concerns local, regional and national. The desire for improved conditions of life, economic growth, employment opportunities, better housing and other requirements of an improved standard of living believed to be available in cities leads to rural-urban drift and consequently urban population concentration (Adewumi, 2010). Solid waste according to (Miller, 2000) is any useless, unwanted, or discarded material that is not liquid or gas. A great mixture of substances including the dust, metal, glass, paper and cardboard, textile, vegetable materials and plastic characterize solid waste (Ajani, 2007).
Mechanical biological treatment archive welshes assemble (2005) Mechanical biological treatment environmental countryside and planning website, welsh assemble. Waste can be classified in several ways but the following list represents a typical classification:
Biodegradable waste: food and kitchen waste, green waste, paper (most can be recycled although some difficult to compost plant material may be excluded. Recyclable materials: paper, cardboard, glass, bottles, jars, tin cans, aluminum cans and foils metals certain plastic, fabric, clothes, tires, batteries etc. Inert waste: construction and demolition waste, dirt, rocks, debris, Electric and electronics waste: electric appliances, light bulbs, washing machines TVs computers screens mobile phones, alarm clocks watches Composite wastes, clothing, tetra packs, waste plastics such as toys
Hazardous waste: including most paints, chemicals, tires, batteries, light bulb, electrical appliance, fluorescent lamps aerosol, sprays cans, and fertilizers.
Toxic waste: including pesticides herbicides and fungicides
Biomedical waste: expired pharmaceutical drugs etc
Among the pressing environmental and public health issues in Nigeria today is the problem of solid waste generation and disposal. The problem of solid waste is a historical one because man’s existence is inextricably linked to the generation of waste. The problem is becoming intractable as many cities in developing countries cannot keep pace with urbanization, pollution and the increasingly concomitant generation of garbage due to changing life style and consumption patterns.
Beneh, (2005) stated that problems of solid waste disposal in residential buildings was attributed to improper planning of government. The springing up of illegal markets, inadequate road networks, Poor institutional regulation, Poor enforcement and monitoring and above all, corrupt and sharp practices by supervisors of buildings. According to Williams (2005), solid waste is an object the holder discards intends to discard or is required to discard. The holder can be either the producer of waste or be in possession of waste. Once a substance or object has become waste it will remain waste until it has been fully recovered and no longer poses a potential threat to the environment or to human health.
Markets play a vital role in the economic life of the people, thus the activities that takes place in the market has created an overwhelming sanitation problems in markets that includes improper refuse disposal and inadequate of sanitary facilities that result in open disposal and exposure to foods to fillies, rodents and contaminates.
According to Cointreau-Living, (2007) markets occupy an important position in the lives of Nigerians and activities involved in buying and selling generate large quantities of solid waste that comprise a large proportion of putrid vegetable and animal matter. It is quite common to observe mountains of waste at market places.
Igoni, (2007) defined market as an “authorized public concourse of buyers and sellers of commodities meeting at the place, more or less strictly limited or defined at an appointed time”. Only those authorized public place and building where transaction of goods and service take place in an organized manner and at a particular point in time.
According to (Folorrunso 2001), solid waste disposal pose fire hazards apart from being eyesores and sources of unpleasant odors, very frequently waste is dumped in drainages or canals and along water courses with impunity.
Poor supervision of residential buildings has lead to overcrowding, as well as trading on access roads within and outside the markets. All this add to indiscriminate waste disposal. Blockage of access road within the market and its surroundings sometimes lead to unnecessary loss of lives and properties in event of emergency evacuation during fire accidents. (Nweke, 2000) of all the environmental problems facing the nation, the most obvious and most embarrassing is the solid waste disposal problems.
Presently, in Awka which is the capital of Anambra state, which is known by having a lots of residential buildings, which are located in the Awka Metropolitan area. The Anambra State Waste Management Agency (ASWAMA) engages in the collection and disposal of solid waste, yet it has not made any significant impact on the urban residents in terms of environmental cleanliness. From the observation of the researcher, wastes are often indiscriminately dumped on open plots of land, particularly along the streets in Awka. In fact, waste management in Awka has gained notoriety due to its visibility and general degradation of the environment. We often witness nauseating scene of heaps of waste in many places.
A good example is the situation along Ukwu Oji behind St Paul’s university Awka and Zik’s Avenue road which leads to where wastes are scattered in gutters, streets corners and roadsides. This is one of the major challenges Anambra State Government is facing. A healthy and sustainable environment that will help to salvage this condition can be ensured if there is an adoption of preventive and remedial strategies. This will only be feasible when there is willingness and commitment from the government, the supervisors of market and urban residents. This study therefore seeks to address the issue of ineffective solid wastes disposal and attempt to proffer solutions that could checkmate and enhance solid waste management thereby reducing solid waste disposal in residential buildings.
1.2 The Concept of the Study
Solid waste management is the act of collecting, treating, and disposing of solid material that is discarded because it has served its purpose or is no longer useful. Improper disposal of residential solid waste can create unsanitary conditions, and these conditions in turn can lead to pollution of the environment and to outbreaks of vector-borne disease—that is, diseases spread by rodents and insects. The tasks of solid-waste management present complex technical challenges.
1.3 General Objectives of the Study
1 To study the households generated solid waste
- To assess the different types of methods used in solid waste disposal
- To identify the effect of solid waste disposal in residential buildings
- To identify the implications of solid waste disposal to the environment and human health
5 To evaluate the awareness of proper waste disposal practice among the residence.
1.4 Scope of the Study
The study was based on solid waste disposal practices in residential buildings in Abagana looking at practices from the generation up to the disposal. It examined solid waste collection, transportation and final disposal methods by criticizing magnitude effects and implication of solid waste disposal practices to the environment and human health. and then recommend measures for proper solid waste disposal practice among residence with the view on how to the challenges could be overcome as the increase of solid waste production is considerable and can be one of environmental considerations.
Questionnaire method, Oral interviews were used to source data from the occupants in addition to the secondary sources