The Impacts of Poor Solid Waste Management Practices on Ala River Water Quality in Akure, Nigeria

ABSTRACT:

The present study assessed solid waste management practices and impact on Ala River water quality in Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria. The primary data were obtained through field observation, interviews and questionnaire while secondary data were obtained from desk review of use of journals, articles, seminar papers, internet sources, government official publications. Simple random sampling technique was used to obtain required information for the study. Results showed that 37.8% of the solid waste generated is of vegetable and food remains origin, polythene and plastics wastes are 28.3 and 19.1% respectively. The result shows that 66% of the respondents do not segregate their waste before disposal and knowledge on waste recycling was low. The major limitations at household and community levels are inadequacies of collection and storage facilities. Similarly, perception towards municipal solid waste management was generally low. The major effects of poor waste management in the study area were land pollution, flooding and water pollution of River Ala in Oke-Aro district of the study area. This is evident in the high levels of turbidity, biochemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen and fecal coliform bacteria of the water quality of River Ala, all of which suggests the presence of microbial organisms which may have been introduced to the water body via diffuse pollution aided by urban storm water runoff and leachate. It is therefore recommended that government should provide more waste receptacles in at both residential and commercial areas across the study area. Finally, government should consider waste-to-wealth initiatives. The first step in realizing this would involve encouraging the residents on the need to sort their waste before disposal and, secondly, waste characterization to determine the energy potentials of waste streams in the study area.