Assessment of the Performance of Public and Private Municipal Solid Waste Collection Institutions in the Tamale Metropolis

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Date
2012
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Abstract
The increasing quantities of solid waste generated in the Tamale metropolis have not been accompanied with an equally increasing public and private sector engagement in the collection and the subsequent disposal of solid waste. There exist two private waste collecting institutions operating within the Tamale Metropolis (Zoom lion and Digital Cleaners) in collaboration with the Solid Waste Management Department of the Metropolitan Assembly. Digital Cleaners is into only house-to-house solid waste collection whiles Zoom lion‘s activities cover street sweeping, house-to-house waste collection and skip collection. The public sector institution on the other hand, is into only skip collection. The operation of the private sector cover 67% of the metropolis whiles the public sector covers 33%. Solid wastes collected are transported through the city uncovered. The solid waste collecting institutions have no specific route through which they transport solid waste to the land fill. Segregation and recycling of solid waste that reduces the volume of it before dumping is not effective. Notable among the waste management problems within the metropolis is inadequate operational funding from the metropolitan budget allocation for the collection and disposal processes. The public sector solid waste collecting institution faces problems such as irregular release of funds from the Metropolitan Assembly, inadequate and old skip trucks, inadequate staff, accidental fires in skips and lack of cooperation from the society and indiscriminate dumping of solid waste around skips and in unauthorized places. The private sector is more efficient than the public sector in terms of collecting and disposing off solid waste. The private sector operatives are able to lift all the skips within their operational area at least once every week. With those under the public sector operational area, 50% of the skips were lifted within 7 days and 50% were lifted after 7 days. None of the solid waste collecting institutions practiced daily collection of solid waste within the Metropolis. The major source of funding for Zoom lion is the Metropolitan Assembly‘s Common Fund whiles Digital Cleaners is self financing. The public sector solid waste management department of the Metropolitan Assembly gets its funding through the sanitation fund. It was also realised that on an average 86tons of solid waste are disposed off daily at the landfill site. A critical look at the distances of skips to the nearest household revealed that 55% of the skips were placed less than 40m to the nearest house hold, 25% placed between 40m-60m whiles 20% were found within 60m-120m to the nearest household.
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A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Master of Science in Environmental Science
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