Inventory of Household Solid Waste Management in the City of Parakou

Abstract

The constant increase in the quantity of waste is a thoughtful issue for the city of Parakou, which mainly adopts traditional dumping as a waste treatment method. The obvious consequence is the proliferation of uncontrolled dumps that annoy for the population. The aim of this work is to present the current situation of waste management in this city for a more effective and sustainable intervention. A descriptive and analytical study was conducted. The choice of purposive sampling was adopted and mainly concerned institutions, pre-collection and collection structures involved in waste management. Excel software was used for data processing and Arc-View to produce the maps. The results show sixteen (16) pre-collect waste structures from 31.50% of households in the city of Parakou with rudimentary and insufficient equipment and understaffed staff for an average of 4.11 garbage collectors per structure. As for collection, the two companies that collect waste from the collection points to the final dump are no longer working. Thus, the collection points are overflowing, the waste is up to the level of the storefront and makes it difficult to move around. So, the garbage collectors are forced to go to the final dump, but 10.30% of them dump the waste on the illegal dumps. Dumps proliferate in the city and generate olfactory and visual nuisances that constitute a danger to the health of the population. 66.67% of NGOs raised issues related to complaints from people living near the dumpsites. It is therefore crucial to strengthen both financially and technically the structures involved in waste management and opt for management based really on recovery.