TITLE:
Methods of Domestic Solid Waste Management in Hohoe Urban in the Volta Region
AUTHORS:
Simon Adom, Wisdom Takramah, Mavis Pearl Kwabla, Margaret Kweku
KEYWORDS:
Solid Waste Management, Environmental Conditions, Infectious Diseases, Methods of Waste Disposal Style, Skip over Dustbin, Hohoe Municipal Assembly, Ghana
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.4 No.5,
May
5,
2016
ABSTRACT: Solid
waste management has become the greatest public health problem facing many
urban and semi-urban areas in Ghana. Great wealth can be generated from wastes
if managed effectively but also has high probability of causing serious health
and environmental problems if not effectively managed. The study sought to
determine factors militating against domestic solid waste management in Hohoe,
possible ways of curbing them and also to assess the methods of domestic solid
waste management. This study used descriptive cross-sectional survey and
structured questionnaire to obtain the required information from respondents. A
total number of 403 respondents were recruited into the study. The data collected
were entered and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version
20. The relationships between socio-demographic characteristics of the
respondents and their use or non-use of apt domestic solid waste disposal
methods were examined using chi-square analysis. The study found that 44% of
respondents disposed domestic waste into central skip over dustbins. Spilled
over of skip over dustbin has caused 8% of respondents to practice open burning.
7% dumped on undeveloped building plots, 5% dumped elsewhere, and 3% dumped
into the river course. About 78% of respondents reported that mobilization of
cleanups was irregular. The result from the study also showed a statistical
significant association between practice of domestic solid waste management and
religion [χ2 (2, 403) = 60.9484, p α = 5%]. About 96% of
Christians practiced good methods of domestic solid waste management compared
to 4% of Muslims. The findings painted a gloomy picture of poor domestic solid
waste management practice among the respondents in the study communities.