Municipal Solid Waste Management in Debre Berhan City of Ethiopia

Abstract

This paper presents an assessment of municipal solid waste generation and composition in Debre Berhan city in Ethiopia, providing an overview of the current state of municipal solid waste management, an analysis of the current problems in MSW collection, transportation, recycling and disposal, and few suggestions for improving the MSW in the coming years. Currently, waste composition in Debre Berhan is dominated by a high organic content, since the concentration of food and kitchen waste in urban solid waste makes up the highest proportion of the waste stream. The study revealed that only 25 % of the households have access to waste collection and transportation services as city municipality is under capacity to provide waste collection and transportation service.  98% of the respondents reported that recycling is not being practiced in the town. So, the potential of recycling and related activities is yet to be exploited. 75% of the urban dwellers dump the waste produce illegally and there exists no well designed dumping or landfill site, consequently urban dwellers are vulnerable to surface and groundwater pollution. Urgent and immediate improvement in building the capacities of the municipality is necessary to meet the current demand for improved municipal waste management and a number of recommendations are made aimed at improving the MSW management system.

Keywords: Ethiopia, Waste Collection, Waste Disposal, Municipal Solid Waste Management.