Abstract
The paper examined the perception of residents on the menace of solid waste on environmental quality in Benin City, Edo State. There is a linkage between waste management and environmental quality as a filthy environment stimulates environmental ill-quality. The objective of study is to examine human perception and knowledge of residences of the menace of solid waste disposal on environmental quality. Data for this study were obtained from primary and secondary sources. Primary data were obtained from 25 selected wards and communities (comprising of 110 settlements) which constitutes the study area. These data were collected through systematic sampling technique from the selected streets and houses in each of Oredo, Egor and Ikpoba-Okha Local Government council areas. In each of the selected street, the 2nd, middle and 2nd to the last households were selected and administered with questionnaire. A total of 1,781questionnaires were administered in the 768 polling unit stations acrossed the 3 local government areas of the study. Secondary data were sourced from published and documentary materials. Both the descriptive and statistical analyses were used for the study. The results show that there is variance in human perception and environmental quality does not vary significantly among residents of the 3 Local Government areas namely: Oredo, Egor and Ikpoba-Okha in Benin City. The study recommends that there should be a change of human attitudes and techniques on waste management and proffer better orientations of the menace of waste on environmental quality. There should be stiff measures of enforcement on residences while Sanitary Health Officers needs to intensify drives on sanitation and crammed down on offenders and environmental waste managers of the danger of indiscriminate dumps of waste anywhere and anyhow in the City of Benin. Finally, there should be improved waste management mechanism, routine fumigation and remediation been carried out on regular bases on the components of the environment as this will help to curb the menace of ill-managed waste disposal in Benin City.
Highlights
Humans have a diverse knowledge and perception of what waste management and environmental quality connotes
It shows that the majority 328 (23.3%) of the despondence which indicates there exists a correlation between waste disposal and environmental quality in their areas of residences in Benin City are aware of theme of the index of environmental quality and the need to residents to adhered to strict compliance to clean and safe environment by ensuring strict and proper disposal of waste items on the components of the environment as this will enhance environmental quality
From personal interviews granted in addition with questionnaires administration it was revealed that the reasons for the response of more of clean air than from other indices of environmental quality could be due to one a combination of other factors such as; low level of industrial activities, less activities of heavy and light duties automobiles factories and less open burning of refuse in the high-sprawl areas in the study area
Summary
Humans have a diverse knowledge and perception of what waste management and environmental quality connotes. Human attitudes and techniques of waste management is a determinant factor of the healthy state of man in the ecosystem as a filthy environment influence poor environment quality. To many they assumed that a clean land, water and bright air is what an environment entails not undermining the healthy state of these components on human health, safety and others living organisms of the environment (Cunningham and Cunningham, 2015; Agbebaku, 2019).
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