Qualitative Determination of Methane Gas at Selected Sites in Kampala City, Uganda

Abstract

Solid Waste (WS) sorting at primary source, collection, transportation and disposal are a challenge in many cities in the developing world. Experiences from the developed world indicate that planning, education, enforcement and resources are needed to effectively manage SW. Poor SW management is responsible for many diseases especially in the developing world. Taking Kampala as a case study, with a population of 1.2 million people, SW is deposed off in public landfills, and open dumps near and/or burnt in residential areas. SW in landfills emit significant amounts of a potent greenhouse gas, methane. Studies from elsewhere have demonstrated that this contributes to the greenhouse effect and global warming. However, most of the developed methods to determine methane gas are expensive and requirement cumbersome sample preparation procedures. More often than not, such equipments are not present in many developing countries. As such data on methane gas emissions in Kampala city and Uganda as a whole are scarce and those that are available are models based on other country estimates A Gas chromatography equipped with a Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID) method was used to make a qualitative study of methane gas generated from SW in Kampala City so as to in- form the relevant decision makers on the need to take appropriate measures to reduce open environment methane emis- sions at dumping sites.