Evaluation of the efficiency of private solid waste management in Ablekuma North Municipal Assembly

Abstract

This study set out to evaluate the efficiency of private solid waste management in the Ablekuma North Municipality. A total of 100 respondents from five electoral areas of the Assembly was used for the data collection and systematic sampling procedure was used to select the various households. Twenty (20) respondents were also interviewed from two private waste collection companies in the Municipality. In each house the female adults were interviewed. The results showed that all respondents interviewed had attained some level of education with 41per cent having completed secondary education. Majority (55%) of the respondents kept their waste in sacks, 41 per cent kept in waste bins and 4% in baskets. 89% of the respondents were aware of waste separation but do not practice it. About 52 per cent of the respondents have registered with the formal private waste collection companies for their waste collection and 46 per cent have registered with the informal sector tricycle operators for their waste collection services. Majority (53%) of the respondents rated the quality of of service delivered by the private sector as fair, good (22%), poor (13%) and very poor (6%). The waste collection companies are faced with some challenges which include bad roads in the various communities, the absence of final disposal site within the Municipality and poor patronage of services by the community members. It was concluded that the private sector waste collection services were not efficient and require much improvement but the informal sector collectors are complementing their inefficient waste collection services. The franchised private sector service provider should be cautioned to improve service coverage and delivery and the informal collectors should be empowered to provide supportive waste collection services in the municipality.