Assessment of Impediments and Factors Affecting
Waste Management: A Case of Accra Metropolis
Accepted 15th
July, 2016
Clifford James Fagariba1 and Shaoxian Song2
1School of Resources and
Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China. 2Hubei Provincial Collaborative Innovation Center for High Efficient
Utilization of Vanadium Resources, Wuhan University of Technology, Luoshi Road
122, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China. 3Hubei Key Laboratory of Mineral Resources Processing and
Environment, Wuhan University of Technology, Luoshi Road 122, Wuhan, Hubei,
430070, China.
*Corresponding author e-mail:
cfagariba@yahoo.com
Municipal solid waste
management in Accra Metropolitan Assembly is at
present delivered in an unsustainable manner.
Due to uncontrolled urbanization, large
quantities of waste are generated daily in Accra
and this exerts much pressure on an over
strained solid waste management system. Coupled
with weak institutional capacity and lack of
resources, both human and capital, the city
authorities face difficulties in ensuring that
all the waste generated in the city is collected
for disposal. Home collection of waste is
limited to high and some middle income areas
while the low income and unplanned settlements
are not given good attention. This leads to
indiscriminate disposal of waste in open drains,
canals and streams and unauthorized places,
creating unsanitary and unsightly environments
in many parts of the city. The study showed that
about 60% of household waste is organic
materials which has the potential to be
converted to compost for agricultural purpose.
Meanwhile, plastics and rubbers which litters
the environment as well as blocking major storm
drains and gutters, hence, creating huge
environmental hazard is made of 11% of the total
component of most household waste generated
daily. The study also revealed that the among
the methods of disposing waste, dumping waste in
skip containers located at authorized places was
the preferred means of disposing waste by
household though others also dispose waste by
other means such as burying and burning.
Inadequate skip containers per population of
household in an area coupled with irregularity
of tracks picking these containers makes skip
containers dumping site ugly scene, hence,
creating health issues. Among the constraints
that impact negatively on sustainable waste
management in Accra Metropolis, economic
constraints was perceived as the main challenge
which affect efficient waste management, as
currently the country is going through serious
economic challenges as a result, the government
does not release money timely to fund projects
of which waste management is the key. Most donor
partners that use to support the government with
funds have either reduced or redrawn their
services as they have no confidence in the state
of Ghana economy. Aside the constrains, the
study also indicated that factors such as poor
public attitude towards waste management, poor
enforcement of sanitation by-laws, inadequate
and untimely release of government funds were
also seen as the main factors affecting waste
management.
This is an open access article
published under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
Cite this article as:
Fagariba CJ, Song S (2016). Assessment of Impediments and Factors Affecting
Waste Management: A Case of Accra Metropolis. Acad. J. Environ. Sci. 4(8):
144-162.