Assessment of household domestic waste management practices, Kiambu county- Kenya

Abstract

This study was carried out to access household domestic waste management practices, perceptions and attitudes, Kiambu County. Household waste is one of the basic services that are currently receiving wide attention in the urban agenda of developing Countries. Lack of effective Household domestic Waste Management has resulted in environmental health hazards and negative impacts on the environment. The study specific objectives were : To document household waste management practices , to assess factors determining household waste management , to assess people‘s perceptions and attitudes on households‘ waste management , to establish the Household general familiarity with various aspects of waste handling and the impacts of waste mismanagement and to establish implication of poor Household Waste Management practices and make recommendations. The target population was divided into two divisions of Juja Sub-County namely Gachororo and Juja so as to compare waste management practices between the two. A sample size of 202 households was randomly selected from the target population and questionnaires administered to the household heads. Data was coded and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used during the analysis. The study revealed that Juja Sub-County faces challenges in household domestic waste management practices. The study showed that 46% of the challenges in Household domestic waste management were as a result of inadequate waste management facilities, 24% as a result of lack of waste collections services and 11% as a result of lack of finances to conduct effective household waste management. The results further indicated that 94% of the residents had not received public education on household domestic waste management, implying that, the residents were unaware of different aspects of household domestic waste management practices. The results of logistic regression analysis indicated that location, age, household size, income, waste type and the amount of waste generated were not significant in influencing the practice of household domestic waste management. However, the location of the household head (coefficient=0.262; p=0.59, odds ratio=1.17) significantly increased the probability of practicing household waste do by a factor of 1.17. The study revealed that poor household domestic waste management has led to outbreaks of environmental diseases such as cholera and malaria among others. The study concluded that to achieve sustainable development in respect to Vision 2030, peri-urban areas and more so Juja Sub-County need to employ sustainable waste management strategies. The study recommended provision of waste management infrastructure, public education on household domestic waste management, Implementation of reduction, recycle, reuse and recover concept, introduction of Community Based Organizations for waste collection and enforcement. The study will be of great significance to various stakeholders such as the Government and Community members.