Practices And Challenges Of Solid Waste Management: A Case Of Burayu Town Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

In Ethiopia, the increase of solid waste generation is resulted from rapid urbanization and population booming. The amount of solid waste in the country has been increasing overtime, largely attributable to rapid population growth rate. Like any other developing countries, Ethiopia has a range of solid waste management problems, including inadequate waste collection, transportation systems and inadequate waste handling and improper final disposal. The purpose of the study was to assess practice and challenges of solid waste management in Burayu town administration. Beside this, the study have specific objectives such as assess the current solid waste management practices in Burayu town; identify the major challenges of solid waste management in Burayu town and investigate the generation rate of households’ solid waste in the town with comparing income level. In order to accomplish these objectives, both primary and secondary sources were used. Sampling methods such as stratified sampling, systematic random sampling and purposive sampling were employed in this study. A total of 173 respondents were selected and participated in the study. The finding of the study reveal that solid waste management in Burayu town was very poor and inadequate, Lack of appropriate awareness for local communities on solid waste management practices, weak accountability, very poor coordination, and weak enforcement of legislations. The household solid waste generation rate study indicated that the waste generation rate of Burayu town is 0.299 kilo gram per capital per day. Hence, the daily, weekly, monthly and annual generation amount is 112,229.22 kilo gram, 1,183,278.56 kilo gram, 3,366,878.1 kilo gram and 40,402,537.2 kilo gram respectively. The result showed that solid wastes generation rate varies significantly with socio-economic condition, particularly economic status of the households. From the study results, it can be concluded the solid waste management system of the city is very weak and lack organization in solid waste management chain. In light of the ineffectiveness of the system, the study recommended there is a need of waste management system and adoption of an integrated solid waste management option in the tow