THE PROBLEMS OF URBAN WASTE DISPOSAL AND MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF ENUGU URBAN (ENSEPA)

THE PROBLEMS OF URBAN WASTE DISPOSAL AND MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF ENUGU URBAN (ENSEPA)

ABSTRACT

This research project is a very crucial study for the effective management of waste disposal is Enugu urban. This study was motivated as a result of the adverse effects of undisposal and improperly managed solid waste on the environment and health of the people.

To solve the problem, both primary and secondary data were collected. The research instruments used in collection of the data were questionnaire, oral interview and personal observation. The respondents comprises of 200 ENSEPA officers. In organizing and presentation of data collected, tables and percentages were used. Various hypotheses were tested using Chi-square test.

Data analysis and interpretation give the following findings:

Effective management of solid waste needs a lot of money, which is beyond the capacities of ENSEPA

Also the urban environmental regulations control as it affects solid waste management has been more theoretical than substantial.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0       INTRODUCTION

1.1       GENERAL BACKGROUND

There were efforts, some of them commendable made at various times, in Enugu to improve the environmental and atmospheric conditions of the different part of the capital city. These have include the clearing of the city of large amounts of refuse site and dumps indiscriminately located within living abodes, which blocked several access routes.

This has opened up some of the area, provided access to part of the city litter to block and also more open spaces for recreation. All this efforts failed the test of time by not sustaining the search for a clean city. Therefore, Afuabi in his write up in the National Concord described these “attempts as mainly cosmetic and that the characteristic of under-development seemed to be the prevalence of urban slum and rural squalor”

To deal with the situation the 1976 local government reform assigned specifically the functions of maintaining and promoting environmental health to the local councils. This was a view to finding a means of solving the problem of environmental decay within the urban center in particular. Inspite of this provision, refuse disposal within the urban center of Enugu remained a problem. Enugu Local Government lacked the required assigned functions. Admolekum, put in vividly this. “  This list of Local Government Functions could be impressive whilst the financial and human resources necessary for effective performance are grossly inadequate”. There was continuous decline in the sanitary condition of the capital city.

In 1984, the government of Anambra State before division established the task force on Works, Housing, vehicle and Environmental Sanitation.

This was an ad-hoc body, which was military in character and operation and therefore, depended on the application of task force to achieve its objective. The taskforce instituted penalties such as times paid on whips. Compliance with sanitation regulation was with “immediate effect,” hence, the unconditional acceptance by the people to pay the required levies what sustained the operations of the taskforce. Under the situation of fear and force compliance with sanitation regulation, the solution to the problem of decay and squalor, particularly as it related to refuse disposal within Enugu was a temporary basis and might not be sustained nor might it stand the test of the time, in the light of this fact as indicated by Obasi in his contribution. The Anambra State Government later decided to establish a more permanent organ whose mandate would span not only the immediate challenge of ensuring a clean environment but also the long term task of inculcating in the public a heightened and enduring sense of sanitary consciousness.

THE PROBLEMS OF URBAN WASTE DISPOSAL AND MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF ENUGU URBAN (ENSEPA)