Community Perceptions towards Compositing of Municipal Solid Waste in Ewuata Village, Eruba Parish, Vura Subcounty in Arua District

ABSTRACT 

Rapid growth of businesses and population in and around Arua town has led to increased production of solid waste consequently giving rise to increased volume of waste dumped in recipient communities. The most attractive and environmentally friendly option to get rid of this huge pileup of garbage and subsequent ones is through composting. The perceptions of recipient communities are crucial to understanding how municipal solid waste management problems might be resolved. Since Arua municipality still uses open dumping system of waste management, there is need to compost this waste to reduce its volume and at the same time to provide compost and other benefits associated with composting to the community. The perceptions of communities in the dumping areas (recipient communities) are likely to influence the start-up and performance of such initiative. This study provides insights on how recipient community perceptions affect composting of municipal solid waste in the dumping areas of Arua district. A structured questionnaire survey was implemented in order to interview local residents in the dumping area. The results showed that imparting municipal solid waste composting knowledge to recipient communities enhances increased participation and hence the amount of waste composted. The general perception is that people are willing to compost if there are some prior benefits or incentives given to them; otherwise it is feasible to compost in recipient communities. Therefore any composting scheme introduced in the recipient communities of Arua must be accompanied by direct incentives from the government or NGOs to motivate the people and at the same time to mitigate some of the hindrances/constraints to composting.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ii

Dedication Ii

Acknowledgement iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of tables

List of figures

ABSTRACT ix

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Problem statement 1

1.3 Purpose of the study 3

1.4 Research objectives 3

1.5 Research questions 3

1.6 Scope 3

1.7 Significance of the study 4

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 General overview about solid waste management 5

2.2 Composting as a waste management strategy and use of compost in agriculture 6

2.3 The need for community participation and involvement in composting 8

2.4 Importance of community awareness in municipal solid waste composting. 9

CHAPTER THREE: MATERIALS AND METHODS 11

3.1 The study area ii

3.2 Research design 12

3.3 Sampling method and sample size .12

3.4 Data collection 13

3.5 Data analysis 13

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 15

4.1 Personal information 15

4.2 Awareness on composting and compost use (objective one) 15

4.3 Recipient community willingness to compost municipal solid waste (objective two) 17

4.4 Feasibility of municipal solid waste composting in recipient communities (objective three) 23

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 26

5.1 Conclusion 26

5.2 Recommendations 27

REFERENCES 28

APPENDICES 32

APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE 32

APPENDIX B: RAW DATA 36