Assessment of status of solid waste management in Asella town, Ethiopia

Solid waste management (SWM) in an urban area is a complex activity that involves the collection, transportation, recycling, resource recovery and disposal of solid waste generated in an urban area [1]. Municipal solid waste is composed of different wastes generated by households and different institutions such as schools, hospitals, slaughter houses and public toilets [2].

Municipal wastes are not well managed in developing countries due to the alarmingly increasing solid waste production which is more than the capacity of the cities and municipalities. It was reported that, waste collection rates are often lower than 70% in low-income countries and more than 50% of the collected waste is often disposed of through uncontrolled land filling [3].

Ethiopia is one of the low income countries facing the consequence of improper solid waste management. It was reported that about 20 to 30% of the waste generated in Addis Ababa, the capital city, remains uncollected [4]. Proper solid waste management requires the commitment of the town municipality and the active involvement of the community members. There are many initiatives taking place in Ethiopia to improve the environmental health especially in the capital city. In Addis Ababa the awareness of the community members about solid waste management is enhanced and more than 70% of the community inhabitant were willing to pay for door to door solid waste collection service which is one of the initiatives introduced by the government [5].

Asella is an old town with many public and private hospitals, health centers, industries, hotels and small scale enterprise where lots of solid waste is generated. The town municipality is mainly responsible for solid waste management of the town as there is no private organization involved in such tasks. There is no communal solid waste container deployed in different sites of the town, as a result solid waste produced from every household are collected on road side. Even though, solid waste management is supposed to be one of the critical public problems in Asella, there was no study done to systematically asses the magnitude of the problem and the factors for the improper waste management. The aim of this cross sectional study was to assess the status of household based improper solid waste management and to identify factors for improper solid waste management in Asella town. Findings of the study could help local policy makers to develop solid waste management related problems solving policies. It could also serve as baseline study to conduct similar study at a regional level.

From the randomly selected households, 401 were included in to the assessment. This makes the response rate 97%. 285 (71%) of the respondents were female. The mean age of the respondents was 38 (+SD of 11.97) and 166 (44.1%) were in the age range of 26–35 years. Regarding their marital status, 276(68.8%) and 59(14%) of them were married and single, respectively. Orthodox Christian was the predominant religion 257(63.9%) among the study participants. 306 (76.3%) of the participants earn monthly income less than 80 USD. (Table 1).

The majority, 72.8%, of respondents didn’t separate solid waste at source. The type of wastes generated includes; Plastic (34.8%), Food residual (31.4%), Paper (30.3), Metal wastes (1%) and other wastes (2.5%). The high level of improper Solid waste management practice were consistent with study findings from Nigeria 83.3% [8], Ghana 82.7% [9] and Gonder, Ethiopia 69.7% [10]. The current solid waste management practice was much lower than the practice seen in Kampala [11]. Even though the economic status of the town is relatively similar with the study area, due to the fact that the people in Kampala use their solid waste to produce manure, their solid waste management practice was much higher than households in Asella town.

In developing countries improper solid waste disposal is common and about half of the respondents in our study dispose their solid waste improperly (dumping in the yard, burn in their compound, throwing in the ditch and in the river). A study done in Keko Machungwa, Tanzania revealed that 62% of residences dispose wastes in unauthorized place, this high improper solid waste disposal was because of inaccessibility due to informal settlements and narrow roads [12]. Similarly, a high improper solid waste disposal practice 75% was reported from Debrebrihan, Ethiopia [13].

This high improper solid waste disposal practice in our study area could be because of the long door to door solid waste collection interval, in which only 26% of the households had the service monthly. Lack of door to door solid waste collection service by town municipality was found to be the potential risk factor for improper solid waste management practice in Asella town, as those households with door to door solid waste collection service were about three times more likely to have proper solid waste management practice.

There was relatively low access to the door to door solid waste collection service and the long interval of collection compared to the study done in the capital city, Addis Ababa. In which 84% of the households had access to door to door solid waste collection [14]. This difference in the accessibility of door to door collection service could be due the poor infrastructure in Asella town and difference in regulations of solid waste management. In the capital city there is better infrastructure of transport in which most households are accessible and the service is accessible for those who are willing to pay [5, 14]. But in Asella town, households are not easily accessible due to the lack convenient roads and the door to door solid waste collection is handled mainly by the town municipality in which there is no direct payment for each solid waste collection service. Similar studies done in Mombasa, Kenya [15] and Adama, Ethiopia [16] showed that there were better door to door solid waste collection service.

Besides to the poor door to door solid waste collection service, the awareness of the households about rules and regulation of solid waste management (10.7%) and practice of 3R (10.4%) were poor. The awareness of solid waste management in the study area was lower than the study findings from Gonder [10] and Bahirdar, Ethiopia [17]. This difference in awareness could be due to the involvement of Nongovernmental organizations such as the Dream Light private limited company in Bahridar which is mainly engaged in proper solid waste management awareness creation among the community members of the city [17].

This study showed that, more than 82% of Asella town residents practice improper solid waste management. Lack of adequate knowledge about solid waste management and not having access to door to door solid waste collection could have contributed to the reported improper solid waste practice. Therefore, there is a need for enhancing the awareness of solid waste management at the community level. We also recommend the municipality of Asella to enhance the accessibility of door to door solid waste collection service. Further studies to assess the status of SWM in different town within the district could help to have comprehensive image about SWM in the district and to convince policy makers to give emphasis to the issue.