The Challenges of Waste Disposal in a Secondary City: Calabar Metropolis – Cross River State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Waste disposal is a major aspect in environmental preservation for healthy living. If neglected could constitute a nuisance and force people to leave rather than live in a city and ultimately despoiling the environment. This paper focuses on the challenges of waste disposal in a secondary city, using Calabar Metropolis as a case study. Data for the study were gathered from field observations and semistructured interviews (SSI) and reviewed literature of journals, periodicals and other published articles. Findings revealed principally that two major parastatals (CUDA and ESU) currently collaborate in this venture to collate, collect and dispose waste in the metropolis; that although the city is noted nationwide as the cleanest in terms of waste disposal, there are still pockets of the city that are still having problems, such as insufficient refuse dump points and, insufficient transport trucks, bad road network, irregular collection and evacuation of waste materials and lack of funds. It is recommended that the government should upgrade roads for easy access by trucks to these areas, develop a comprehensive taxing system that will make all stakeholders in waste generation to pay for the services of collection and disposal, create more refuse dump points and provide more bins, encourage private agencies to partner in waste disposal, create awareness on waste disposal, institute a body to monitor and punish defaulters who fail to comply with regulations, and provide funds for appropriate agencies for prompt and effective waste disposal in the metropolis. With this in place, the environment will be preserved for posterity.LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research Vol. 5 2008: pp. 388-399