The Negative Impacts of Poor Municipal Solid Waste Management on Livelihoods in Walewale Township, West Mamprusi District, Ghana: A Social Survey and Assessment

Abstract

In much of the developing world, district and municipal authorities have struggled to manage the waste generated in their area of jurisdiction due to a plethora of factors ranging from inability to enforce a comprehensive set of laws pertaining to the sector, through the dearth of technical capacity to the financial limitations imposed by budgetary constraints. The study considered the case of waste management by selecting five communities within the Walewale Township in the West Mamprusi District, Ghana. This social assessment of the impact of poor waste management employs interviews, personal observation and site visits, literature review and secondary data to identify the problems, examine its level and relationship with other variables.  The prevailing system of solid waste management was found to be overly inclined to early approaches of collection, transportation, transfer but with little attention to disposal and final landfill site (reduction, reuse, recycle).  The waste management in the District was frought with many challenges such as irregular collection of waste, proliferation of illegal dumping sites, overflowing of waste receptacles and partial involvement of stakeholders such as residents.  The research sheds light on the many areas of poor waste management, particularly on disposal, since such poor practices are not only common to the other towns in the district but also with many of the towns in the country as a whole.The paper proposes as solutions to the above, the expanded involvement of private sector actors, communities and the empowerment of the District Waste Management Departmnet to enforce its bye-laws on sanitation and waste.

Keywords: Solid waste, Segregation, Waste collection, Waste receptacles, sanitary site, Walewale, West Mamprusi