Assessment of the Status and Challenges of Solid Waste Management in Selected Kebeles of Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Solid waste is highly linked to urbanization and economic development. Today, worldwide urbanization is thought of as an unstoppable characteristic of global societal change. The uncollected or illegally dumped wastes constitute a disaster for human health and the environmental degradation. This study was aimed at the overall assessment of the existing practice, challenges and the status of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) service in selected Kebeles of Jimma town. Besides this, the study also had specific objectives such as, Assessing the status of HHs` solid waste collection, transportation and disposal practices and challenges facing HHs and also status and spatial coverage, institutional arrangement and capacity of MSWM service of the town. The study was conducted in Jimma town and Jimma is the biggest and dominant political and economic, cultural and historical town of south west Ethiopia and found at 354km distance from Addis Ababa. For the purpose of this study three Kebeles were selected using purposive sampling due to their high rate of generation and a total of 380 households were surveyed using simple random sampling. Both quantitative and qualitative technique used for data analysis and data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, and field observations. The study revealed that the status of SWM of town was very poor and inadequate in all elements of SWM such as waste collection, transportation and disposal activities. The HHs were practicing improper handling of SW storage, about (96%) of the HHs were storing all types of waste together and 25% practiced illegal dumping , only 45 % of HHs got access of MSSE service, 21% give SW to informal collectors and about 9% of HHs were burying and burning SW. The first main factors, socio-economic such as lack of awareness, about (84.7%) clean their houses in every day, but annually only (52.3%)of HHs participated on cleaning campaigns on average 3-4 times, average monthly income was 1001- 2000 Birr (32%) and 1000birr and less than were(26%), Distance of Containers from the houses above 600m was from(94%) of respondents. Also demographic-factor, family size with 4-6 were about (45%) of HHs and shown a reasonable correlation and impact on SWM. The second factor was poor institutional structure and capacity of Municipality. The finding shown that the major problems aggravating HH level SWM in the town include: lack of institutional coordination, insufficient and unskilled man power, very low financial capacity, weak enforcement of rules and regulations, socio-cultural factors and lack of awareness among the community. No collaboration of NGOs, no private sector involvement.