AbduAbdulla09
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- Sep 6, 2021
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ENCOURAGE SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT TO THE COMMUNITY
Waste management is gradually becoming a serious concern in Tanzania due to limited sorting at source and improper storage, collection, transportation, treatment and final disposal. This implies that significant proportion of the waste generated end up in the environment in an unacceptable ways of disposal, which accelerate environmental and public health risks. The waste management problem is more pronounced in squatter settlements, where 70- 80% of the urban population resides without the necessary infrastructure and social services. Consequently, over 70% of diseases attended in health facilities in the country are water and sanitation related.
The main pollution sources include municipal wastewater, industrial effluent, and leachate from dumpsites, agricultural activities, gaseous emissions from industrial establishments and transportation activities and noise. The trend seems to worsen particularly in urban areas due to concentration of socio-economic activities and escalating population growth.
Wastewater is the most serious source of water pollution since over 90% of the population use pit latrines and septic tanks for sanitation with walls, which are not watertight, and as such groundwater can flow freely in and out of the pit. Only about 10-15% of the urban population has access to the sewerage system, which further contributes to incidences of water borne diseases. It is estimated also that the quantity of municipal solid waste generated countrywide amounts to more than 10,000 tones per day. The indicative generation rate ranges from 0.1 – 1.0 kg/cap/day. As much as 80-90% of solid waste generated in urban areas is not collected and most of the domestic waste, which accounts for about 60 % of the total solid waste generated daily, is disposed of by burning or burying ( Ally, B et al 2014).
Waste is directly linked to human development, both technologically and socially. The composition of different wastes varied over time and location, with industrial development and innovation has directly linked to waste materials. Some components of waste have economic value and can be recycled once correctly recovered (Awunyo, et al., 2013).
Waste are any useless, unwanted discarded (surplus/not need) material generated from normal, day-to-day human activities. Examples left over food scrapes, vegetables, peeled material, plastics, wood pieces, clothes and ashes, abandoned furniture and automobiles, newspapers, ashes. Waste can be either solid or liquid (European Environment Agency, 2013).
Waste Management (WM) is the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring and regulation of the waste management process and waste-related laws, technologies and economic mechanisms.
Waste management practices are not uniform among countries (developed and developing nations); regions (urban and rural areas), and residential and industrial sectors can all take different approaches. In fact, the issue of waste management is becoming more complex and challenging in the future due to the tremendous growth in urban population and their consumption patterns. It is argued that the greater the economic prosperity and the higher percentage of urbanization, the greater the amount of solid waste produced and managing waste will become more complex (Hassan, 2000).
CHALLENGES OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
- Population Growth, due to the increasing of large number of people in a certain area cause more production of waste in their residence, people thrown their waste randomly without manage them in specific container or dustbins as a results lead production of Odors hence outbreak diseases take place like Cholera, diarrhea and even malaria.
- Transportation of waste is a major issue in most developing countries including Tanzania as appropriate disposal sites may be remote. Frequently, subscription pick-up services are available for people paying a flat fee to have their waste picked up and disposed of. Other people can also subscribe to specialty services, like medical waste pick-up services, or confidential paper shredding and disposal services.
- Waste management practices is another challenge as it differ for developed and developing nations, for urban and rural areas and for residential and industrial producers. For instance, a study by Awunyo, et al., 2013, indicates that in some cases management for nonhazardous residential and institutional waste in metropolitan areas is usually the responsibility of local government authorities, while management for hazardous commercial and industrial waste is usually the responsibility of the generator or waste producer.
- The issue of urbanization, the situation shows that rapid urbanization and changes in the pattern of life, give rise to generation of increasing quantities of wastes, which causes another threat to our already degraded environment. At this time the world is now facing an extreme situation of waste management from both the side, from industrialization and municipal waste management especially in the under developed countries (Kamara, 2011).
- The lack of sites designated for carrying out waste activities such as collection points, transfer stations and sanitary landfills. In some areas especially in Tanzania, solid waste is dumped indiscriminately leaving most of the area filthy.
Pictures showing urban expansion with improper waste management at Fuoni Mambosasa Zanzibar (taken by me, 2021).
EFFECTS OF IMPROPER WASTE MANAGEMENT
Though we all are familiar with common methods of waste management like landfills, incineration, recycling, biological processing or energy conservation; we find ourselves living in a world filled with waste.
Picture taken by me, 2021 at main dumping site Kibele Zanzibar
Renewable energy and recycling took us to newer heights, but the adverse effects of improper waste management continue to plague us as follow;
- It is sources of air pollution due to production and uncontrolled land fill gases such as methane and carbon dioxide that contribute in respiratory diseases and global warming effect.
- It leads the underground water pollution that caused by the leachate formation which penetrate in to the earth that causes drinking water contamination of microbial and other chemicals that occurring in waste.
- Due to delay, the process of waste covering it causes to increases the bad odor and breading site of insects like house fly, rats and cockroaches that contributing in epidemics diseases.
- It is land pollution because the waste remains open for about 1 week without any process of covering.
- Extreme Weather Caused By Climate Change; Firstly, harmful greenhouse gases are created from decomposing waste. These rise up to the atmosphere and trap heat. This adversely causes extreme weather reactions in the form of storms and typhoons.
- There should be waste segregation. This is the separation of wet waste and dry waste. The purpose is to recycle dry waste easily and to use wet waste as compost. When segregating waste, the amount of waste that gets landfilled reduces considerably, resulting in lower levels of air and water pollution. It is important to remember that waste segregation should be based on the type of waste and the most appropriate treatment and disposal. This also makes it easier to apply different processes to the waste, like composting, recycling and incineration. It is important to practice waste management and segregation as a community. One way to practice waste management is to ensure there is awareness. The process of waste segregation should be explained to the community.
- We should create and implement Polluter-pays principle; The polluter-pays principle mandates that the polluting party pays for the impact on the environment. With respect to waste management, this generally refers to the requirement for a waste generator to pay for appropriate disposal of the unrecoverable material.
- Community members should adhered to the Environmental Policy statement that everybody has the responsibility to make the environment clean through participating in solid waste management services provided in the Municipal Councils.
- Community members together with the Municipal Council should have vehicle designated for solid waste collection including other necessary equipments and protective gears for solid waste collectors to ensure efficiently operation of the services.
- Provision of education; There should effort to incinerate solid waste management issues in the education curriculum which will cut across at different level of primary and secondary education to increase knowledge and build positive attitude on hygienic solid waste disposal behavior.
- There should be specific dustbins, containers and collection point in any ward, shehia, region and district both urban and rural areas to make sure that there is proper waste management.
(Example of designated vehicles for solid waste collection. Picture taken by me at Darajani Zanzibar, 2021)
Some of the specific dustbins for solid waste management at stone town Zanzibar (picture taken by me during field visit, 2021).
Therefore, the communities should be aware on how to manage their waste in their residence. We need to have ZERO WASTE in our countries and this will be possible if we will follow the rules and regulation that are appointed by government and non-government sectors in our counties. Local authorities should establish an appropriate paying mechanism for solid waste services in collaboration with the community, NGOs and the private, CBOs to enroll all households within the jurisdiction and to ensure that services are delivered effectively.
REFERENCES
- Awunyo-Vitor, D., Ishak, S., & Seidu, J., G. (2013). Urban Households' Willingness to Pay for Improved Solid Waste Disposal Services in Kumasi Metropolis, Ghana. Urban Studies Research, 2013.
- Ally, B et al .(2014). International journal of current research and academic review. Municipal solid waste management of Zanzibar. Department of environment and occupational healthy: university of Malaysia.
- European Environment Agency (2013). Flooding during the rainy season in Accra, Ghana. W Afri J Environ Assess. Hppt//scp.eronet.europa.eu. (Accessed date: 24 January, 2015).
- Hassan, M. N. (2000). Policies to improve solid waste management in developing countries: some insights in Southeast Asian Countries. In Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on solid waste management (pp. 191- 207).
- Kamara, A. J. (2009). Household participation in domestic waste disposal and recycling in the Tshwane Metropolitan area: An environmental education perspective.
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