Practices and Challenges of Household Solid Waste Management in Woldia Town, Northeastern Ethiopia.

Background: The rapid growth of urban populations has led to a dramatic increase in urban waste generation with environmental and public health problems associated with water contamination, emission of toxic and noxious fumes, soil contamination and introduction of disease vector populations.

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to assess solid waste disposal practices and challenges of solid waste management in Woldia town, northeastern Ethiopia.

Methods: A descriptive research design was employed, using a survey method and naturalistic observational methods. A total of 236 households were surveyed, including waste collectors and cleaners, waste pickers, and 20 students and ten teachers from Woldia secondary and preparatory schools. A purposive sampling technique (made up of municipal officers, scavengers (waste pickers), waste collectors and cleaners and a simple random sampling technique (of teachers, students and kebeles of the study area) was employed, then proportional allocation was made for each randomly selected kebeles based on population size to determine the sample. Finally, survey questionnaire, interview, focus group discussion and observation were used as data collecting tools. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were also employed.

Results: The current study revealed that educational status (AOR = 10.92, 95% CI = (3.12-38.27)), occupational status (AOR = 8.08, 95% CI = (2.08-31.31)), monthly income (AOR = 5.72, 95% CI = (1.55-21.13)), and age (AOR = 2.53, 95% CI = (1.04-6.19)) were found to be the major factors associated with solid waste management practices. Additionally, shortage of storage materials, lack of alternative waste disposal options, household attitudes, and lack of awareness were the major challenges for low performance of solid waste management practices of the local government and households. The focus group individuals and interviewed participants indicated that solid waste management practices were poor.

Conclusions: The present study revealed that solid waste management practices in Woldia town remain inadequate. Therefore, efforts by the municipality and other stakeholders are needed to mitigate the problem of waste management and disposal practices.

Participant consent: Obtained.

Ethics approval: The study was approved by the Institutional Research Ethics Review committee (IRERC) of Woldia University.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests.