Solid Waste Management in Ghana: A Case Study of Effiduase and Asokore in the Sekyere East District

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2013-12-16
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Abstract
Waste management has over the years posed and continues to pose serious challenges to both global authorities and communities including Effiduase and Asokore in Ghana. In the bid to assess the situation in Effiduase and Asokore, the existing practices and challenges to both management and households and willingness of households to pay for door-to-door solid waste collection were assessed through administration of structured questionnaire to respondents who were made of households, district assembly and a waste management company (Zoomlion Ghana Limited). Results indicated that waste disposal in the study communities was mainly undertaken by females probably due to the culture of the communities which enjoined females to engage in domestic chores. Respondents, who were of average household size of 7 people and earned about GH¢ 250.00 through trading, generally had low level of educational attainment (only 40% up to both secondary and tertiary). Solid wastes were collected into holding facilities such as polythene material, dustbins and sacks and disposed into wagon, bush, in pits and at open public dumpsites or even burned. Households paid an average monthly charge of GH¢ 3.00 for disposal of solid waste into strategically placed wagon and were willing to pay up to GH¢ 6.00 for door-to-door collection and disposal as against the monthly charge of GH¢12.00 proposed by the waste management company. Low level of educational attainment by households, pollution and lack of financial and technological resource were the main factors that militated against efficient management of solid waste in the study communities. This calls for intensified public education on sound environmental practices with special emphasis on solid waste management and also the provision of adequate resources to efficiently deal with the waste management problem.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Materials Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi,In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Resources Management, November-2013
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