Assessment and Implications of Waste Transportation and Disposal Practices of Rural and Urban Dwellers in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

The piles of solid waste that have accumulated across the cities of Kwara State, Nigeria, pose a serious threat to public health. The implications of waste disposal and transportation practices on the health of people cannot be undermined, which may include environmental health issues such as outbreaks of cholera, lassa fever, malaria and other diseases which have been frequently experienced in the study area. In order to avert such incidences in the nearest future, this study assessed solid waste disposal and transportation practices and its implications on the health of the people in rural and urban areas of Kwara State. Three research questions and two hypotheses were tested for the study. An ex-post facto research design was used. The sample for the study was chosen using a multi-stage sampling technique. A total of 754 questionnaires were given to household heads who were chosen at random from six Local Government Areas in Kwara State. For research questions, mean, standard deviation and percentages were used, and the study hypotheses were analysed using an independent sample t-test. Findings revealed that rural and urban dwellers in Kwara State use similar methods of solid waste disposal (P-values= 0.99>0.05, 0.99>0.05) and transportation (P-values=0.13>0.05, 0.07>0.05). Most of the disposal methods used are unhygienic and not environmental friendly (open burning, dumping on bare floors and drainages, and use of pits dug at the backyard). Also, majority of the respondents do not transport their wastes, some of the respondents give to children to dispose off on the streets, some take it along to dispose illegally when going to work, while a few patronize government and commercial waste collectors). The implications of such practices were found to be too important to be neglected such as unpleasant odour, disease outbreaks and loss of aesthetic value of the streets. It was suggested among others that household members should try to use accessible healthy waste disposal options such as composting, sanitary landfill and recycling of waste in order to prevent environmental health diseases and degradation.