Assessing The Current Status Of Solid Waste Management Of Gondar Town, Ethiopia

Ethiopia is facing rapid urbanization leading to overcrowding and the development of slums and informal settlements with poor waste management practices. Urban dwellers generally consume more resources than rural dwellers, and so generate huge quantities of solid wastes. This study is focused on the overall assessment of the existing MSWM service of Gondar town. The overall objective of this study was assessing the current solid waste management service of Gondar town. Both primary and secondary sources were used to achieve the objectives. The analysis of this study was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The findings of this study revealed that the present system of MSWM in Gondar town entirely relied on the municipality which provided the full range of waste collection, transportation and disposal service. But, the provision of this service is not kept in pace with the town solid waste generation. Based on the findings of this study, the town households' dominantly produced biodegradable solid wastes with generation rate of 0.21kg/person/day. This made the daily total solid waste generation of households to be 8,140Kg. Together with other four solid waste sources the total daily solid waste generation of the town is about 11660 kg. So that MSWM of the town is found in very low status and spatial coverage. This poor status of MSWM is also intensified by three critical factors i.e poor institutional structure and capacity of Sanitation and beautification, limited participation and contribution of stakeholders and poor households' solid waste management practices. This study concluded that, there should be sustainable solid waste management systems (reuse, recycle, composting, and incineration) through awareness creation and training, improvement of SB institutional structure and capacity, and implementation of integrated MSWM approach which recognizes and comprises all stakeholders in the town.