Civil & Environmental Engineering
Civil & Environmental Engineering
DOI: 10.4172/2165-784X.1000202
                                     al
              vi
   urnal of Ci
                                        En
                                          gineering
                                                      Civil & Environmental Engineering
 Jo
ISSN: 2165-784X
                                                      Abstract
                                                          Many Ghanaian communities are faced with issues of solid waste disposal and health risks that undermine efforts
                                                      towards ensuring a clean environment and good health for all. This research focuses on solid waste disposal and health
                                                      issues among residents in the Sawaba community. Questionnaires, observation and unstructured interview guide were
                                                      the methods employed for data collection using a sample size of 150 respondents. The systematic sampling technique
                                                      was used to arrive at the sample size for the selected respondents. Percentages, frequency charts, photographs
                                                      (Figures), cross tabulation and chi-square tests, with the aid of Statistical Product for Service Solution (SPSS) were
                                                      the tools used to analyze the data. The shared experiences from residents showed that, issues of improper solid
                                                      waste disposal have posed threat to health of residents. The cross tabulation and the chi-square tests on diseases
                                                      contraction and distance of final disposal sites from the houses showed that, residents living closer to open dump sites
                                                      have contracted related diseases such as malaria, skin infections among others as result of improper refuse disposal.
                                                      The Environmental Health and Health department, and residents in the community are concerned and hoping a lasting
                                                      strategy would be found to ensure a clean environment and good health for all. As result it was recommended that,
                                                      there should be proper siting of final disposal sites to avoid pest and diseases proliferation, provision of more refuse
                                                      containers and household waste bins for residents among others.
Keywords: Community; Disease; Health; Solid waste disposal                                                          often burned in residential areas to reduce volume and uncover metals.
                                                                                                                    Burning creates thick smoke that contains carbon monoxide, soot and
Introduction                                                                                                        nitrogen oxides, all of which are hazardous to human health and degrade
                                                                                                                    urban air quality [5]. Uncollected wastes often clog drains and cause the
     The growth of the world’s population, increasing urbanization,
                                                                                                                    stagnation of water, the breeding of mosquitoes or the contamination
rising standards of living, and rapid developments in technology have
                                                                                                                    of water bodies from which the population normally takes water for
all contributed to an increase in both the amount and the variety of
                                                                                                                    consumption, cooking and cleaning. In tropical countries, the high
solid wastes generated by industrial, domestic and other activities.
                                                                                                                    temperatures and humid conditions accelerate degradation, increase
Many industrialized European countries like Britain, France, Spain,
                                                                                                                    the amount of leachate and directly affect the surrounding ecosystems
Ireland and Italy were being classified by as constituting the nucleus
                                                                                                                    by penetrating the soil and contaminating groundwater [6]. The
of the “dirtiest” countries in Europe, “drowning in a sea of garbage”
                                                                                                                    affluent lifestyle brought about by modernization and development
and with most of their “municipal rubbish dumped in landfill sites”
                                                                                                                    aggravates the problem of improper solid waste disposal on health.
[1]. A World Bank [2] report on the state of solid waste around the                                                 While solid waste issues are not a novelty, uncoordinated disposal
world estimates that, the amount of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)                                                     and its consequences if overlooked however can wreck the health and
will rise from the current 1.3 billion tonnes per year to 2.2 billion                                               existence of any well-meaning people. Uncollected solid waste blocks
tonnes per year by 2025, with much of the increase coming from                                                      drains, and causes flooding and subsequent spread of water- borne
rapidly growing cities in developing countries. Low income countries                                                diseases. Solid waste that is not properly disposed of, especially excreta
are also expected to generate 213 million tonnes of solid waste a day                                               and other refuse from households and the community, are a serious
with the population rising to 676 million by 2025. Lower Middle                                                     health hazard and which can lead to the spread of infectious diseases.
Income ones are also projected to generate 956 million tonnes                                                       Unattended waste lying around attracts flies, rats, and other creatures
of solid waste per day with a population of 2.08 billion. Waste                                                     that in turn spread disease. This leads to unhygienic conditions and
generation will hit 360 million tonnes per day by 2025 in Upper                                                     thereby leading to a rise in the health problems. Other high-risk group
Middle Income countries with expected population of 619 million.                                                    includes population living close to a waste dump and those whose water
For High Income nations, waste generation a day by 2025 will reach                                                  supply gets contaminated [7]. Begum [8] also argues that, uncollected
686 million tones and population at 912 million. The report further                                                 solid waste also increases risk of injury and infection and that, annual
states that Municipal solid waste challenges are going to be enormous                                               floods in Eastern and Western parts of Africa, and Indian cities are
or even greater than the challenges we are facing with climate change
[3]. Household waste in Africa contains food waste (biodegradable/
compostable), sand, gravel, paper, plastic, metals (example aluminium)
                                                                                                                    *Corresponding author: Yasmin Suleman, Kwame Nkrumah University of
and glass (the last four components are recoverable, reusable and                                                   Science and Technology Kumasi, Ghana, Tel: +233 32 206 0438; E-mail:
recyclable). Plastic is a major nuisance in municipal solid waste which                                             [email protected]
degrades the environment, clogs drains and causes flooding in the                                                   Received July 23, 2015; Accepted September 01, 2015; Published September
rainy season. Waste is typically disposed of without consideration for                                              11, 2015
environmental and human health impacts, leading to its accumulation                                                 Citation: Suleman Y, Darko ET, Agyemang-Duah W (2015) Solid Waste Disposal
in cities, towns and uncontrolled dumpsites [4]. Waste handlers and                                                 and Community Health Implications in Ghana: Evidence from Sawaba, Asokore
waste pickers are especially vulnerable and may also become vectors,                                                Mampong Municipal Assembly. J Civil Environ Eng 5: 202. doi:10.4172/2165-
                                                                                                                    784X.1000202
contracting and transmitting diseases when human or animal excreta or
medical wastes are in the waste stream. Improperly disposed solid waste                                             Copyright: © 2015 Suleman Y, et al. This is an open-access article distributed
left unattended to, can contaminate ground and surface water and also                                               under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
                                                                                                                    unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
create greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants. Garbage is                                                original author and source are credited.
Page 2 of 6
blamed, at least in part, on plastic bags blocking drains. UN-Habitat           improperly discarded in the environment. It is against this background
health data also show that diarrhea and acute respiratory infections            that this study seeks to verify this challenge and its implication for
are significantly higher for children living in households where solid          the health of residents in Sawaba community of Asokore-Mampong
waste is dumped, or burned in the yard, compared to households                  Municipal assembly.
in the same cities that receive a regular waste collection service [6].
Improper solid waste disposal activities have diverse effects ranging           Data and Methods
from health, environment, and human life and property as different              Overview of study area
researchers espouse on the consequences of improper municipal solid
waste disposal. Rotten organic materials pose great public health risks,            The Asokore-Mampong Municipal Assembly in which Sawaba
including serving as breeding grounds for disease vectors. “Improper            community is located covers the north – eastern segment of Kumasi
solid waste disposal leads to substantial negative environmental                Metropolitan area in the Ashanti Region. Sawaba community located
impacts (for example, pollution of air, soil and water, and generation of       within the Asokore Mampong Municipal and is mainly a residential
greenhouse gases from landfills), and health and safety problems (such          area which houses people from different religious backgrounds and
as diseases spread by insects and rodents attracted by garbage heaps, and       ethnicity. The residences of this community are mostly migrants
diseases associated with different forms of pollution)” [9]. Solid waste        especially from the Northern sector of the country with few indigenous
disposal in Kumasi is a complex issue that has been a major feature             people [10] (Figure 1). The Ashanti Region, in which the Asokore-
on the priority of successive municipal chief executives and waste              Mampong Municipal is found, is centrally located in the middle belt of
management groups. Generally, existing facilities including sanitary            Ghana. It lies between longitude 1°.15”W and 2° .25”W, and latitudes
facility are inadequate to serve the people, the ever increasing volumes        6°.50”N and 7°.46”N , with a total land area of 24,389 km2; representing
of solid waste generated in the Kumasi municipality is overwhelming.            10.2 percent of the total land area of Ghana. The Municipality falls
Problems are encountered at all levels of waste management namely;              within the South–West physical region of Ghana. Thus, it is within the
poor network, different settlement structures making collection in              range of 250-300 meters above sea level. The topography of the area is
some areas difficult, increasing waste quantities due to urbanization,          undulating. That is the area is characterised with lowland and highlands.
inadequate and obsolete waste collection equipment. The situation               Aboabo River is the main water body weaving through the Sawaba
creates a suitable environment for the breeding of disease vectors such         community. Like the other streams in the area, river Aboabo is chocked
as mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches and mice. In view of this, some of            with solid waste material. Thus, its extinction is eminent. The Dichem
the inhabitants dispose of rubbish indiscriminately such as drainage            stream is endowed with man- made drainage system, however due
channels, and the recent advent of polythene bags have even worsen              to lack of maintenance and irresponsible human activities the drains
the situation for waste management groups as they are seen everywhere           are either collapsed or choked with refuse [10]. There are also water
in the city. Solid waste in the Sawaba community of Asokore Mampong             channels running across the Sawaba community and indiscriminate
Municipal, consist mainly of garbage generated from household food              solid waste disposal along these water channels, gutters and drains
waste, plastics and containers. The community solid waste generated             poses a threat to health of residents in the Sawaba community,
come in the forms of degradable and non-degradable and tends to be              such as malaria, diarrhea and other infections [10]. Ensuring a
Source: Department of Geography and Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
                                      Figure 1: Map of Ghana and Asokore Mampong Municipal showing the study community
Page 3 of 6
clean environment for many residents in the Sawaba community is                open-ended questions were administered to individual respondents
synonymous to preventing environmental health related problems. On             to collect basically primary data. Unstructured interviews were also
the contrary, poor solid waste disposal in the community is adversely          administered to waste and health department to elicit information on
contributing to the health problems in the Sawaba community. Some of           the issue of solid waste disposal and health in the study area and how
these associated poor refuse disposal health problems include; malaria,        they intend to address the problem. Lastly, respondents were briefed on
typhoid fever, cholera, flies, bad odour, skin infections among others         the objective of the study and they were assured of strict confidentiality
[10]. According to the Asokore Mampong Municipal Profile[10],                  of the response they gave.
directly related to good health, survival, growth and development are
potable drinking water, improve sanitation and good hygiene. Delivery          Data analysis
of these basic services of life has not been without challenges. Thus,             Quantitative and qualitative methods of data analyses were
access to these services has been a luxury in developing countries.            employed to discuss the findings and to draw conclusions from the
With regard to sanitation, the major problem facing the municipality           study. The qualitative data included data from the unstructured
is poor communal refuse sites for managing solid waste materials,              questions administered to the officials. Quantitative data also included
which is the area lack properly constructed communal refuse site. This         data from administered questionnaires and these were analyzed with
development gap has resulted in indiscriminate disposal of refuse in           cross-tabulation and descriptive statistical tools such as frequency,
the Sawaba community. Other residents patronize the house to house             percentage charts with the aid of the Statistical Product for Service
refuse collection system. Operation of this system has not been without        Solution (SPSS) software. The study results were presented in the form
dissatisfaction from the residents. Outstanding setback identified             of pie charts, tables, bar charts, and crosstabs with chi-square tests.
about this system of solid waste management is irregular emptying of           Figures from the study area were also used to support the results and to
household bins. Thus, these refuse bins will over flow and stay outside        give a visual presentation for clarity.
for many days before emptying it, this situation could lead to health
problems such as mosquitoes, bad odour and other infections [10].              Results and Discussion
Research design, variables and settings                                        Characteristics of the study participants
    The study used cross sectional survey with both qualitative and                 Majority of the study participants (89%) were females showing a
quantitative approach covering Sawaba in the Kumasi Metropolis                 youthful age from 20 years to 40 years as indicated in Table 1. Most
area. It is a cross sectional because it researched into waste disposal        of the respondents (90%) were Northerners and this was attributed
mechanism and its effects on health in an area at a point in time other        the nature of the study prefecture which is dominated by Northerners
than on long term interval. The demographic and socio-economic                 (Sissala, Wala, Dagomba, Frafra). Further, formal educations of
                                                                               residents play a significant role in enhancing their quality of life and
variables such as age, sex, marital status, education level, occupation
                                                                               reduction of related health problems from poor refuse disposal. Most
and monthly income were collected to aid the study. Furthermore,
                                                                               of the respondents (41%) had no formal education. This is partly or
study also collected data on effects of improper solid waste disposal on
                                                                               wholly due to the fact that most of the residents in the area are settlers
health in the study area. The study variables were measured based on
                                                                               from different ethnic backgrounds seeking for greener pastures in other
the responses of the respondents. These were further were coded so as
                                                                               economic activities such as trading. Again, if the refuse generated as a
to ensure accuracy in measurement.
                                                                               result of the diverse occupational activities in the area is not properly
Sampling and study participants                                                disposed of it could lead to health problems. It was discovered that
                                                                               majority of the respondents (43%) were into petty trading. Moreover,
     The study participants involved inhabitants in Sawaba and                 it is normally underlined that high income earning residents have the
considered only residents who have attained 18 years and above. This           possibility and the high propensity to afford the cost for proper disposal
age category was used because it is believed that at this age the individual   of solid waste generated than low income earners. In some cases, when
is matured to give info on how solid waste disposal impact on his or her       the cost for disposing refuse is relatively low, some residents are still
health. The systematic sampling technique was used to select individual        not able to afford that, and as such resort to dumping at open dump
respondents. The population of Asokore-Mampong Municipal as of                 sites and unauthorized places. It was unearthed that about 51% of the
2010 was 209,479 of which that of Sawaba were 14,655 [10]. To arrive           respondents have their monthly earnings below GH¢ 200.00. This
at a sample size that is representative enough for the total population        means that most of them will face the problem of disposal off their
of Sawaba, the study computed 20 percent (thus, 0.2) of 14655 the total        waste properly and can culminate into health predicaments in the area.
population, which gave a sample size of 2931. However, due to the level
of the study, time constraint and cost the sample size was further scaled      Current solid waste disposal situation
down by 5 percent (0.05) of 2931 to arrive at an estimated sample size             As regards respondents’ assessment, it was discovered that the solid
of 150 for individual residents and officials in the study area. Thus, 148     waste disposal situation in the area was very poor. This was confirmed
questionnaires were administered to the residents, two (2) were given          by majority of the respondents (61%) following the study. Thus the
to officials of both waste and health department; the heads of official for    poor solid waste disposal condition if not properly check can ruin the
the two departments in the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly                  residents in Sawaba. Probably because of their low education level,
were purposely targeted to elicit relevant data on solid waste disposal        most of them may not know that poor solid waste disposal have effect
and health in the Sawaba community.                                            on their lives. The need for education is thus critical in the era of poor
                                                                               solid waste disposal in area (Figure 2).
Data collection method
    The study employed various research instruments including
                                                                               Awareness of the effects of poor refuse disposal and diseases
administering of questionnaires and unstructured interviews to collect         contracted
data for the study and also made some observations on the field to                 Awareness level of residents on the dangers of improper refuse
support the data. A set of questionnaire made up of close-ended and            disposal on their health is an important factor in considering issues
Page 4 of 6
Variable      Category                     Frequency         Percent               that, majority of the respondents have contracted diseases associated
              Male                         16                11%                   with improper solid waste disposal, despite the fact that residents were
Sex                                                                                aware of the dangers especially malaria.
              Female                       132               89%
              under 20yrs                  6                 4%
                                                                                   Effects of the solid waste on health
              20-29yrs                     53                36%
Age           30-39yrs                     55                37%                       Distance of final disposal sites and associated health risks
              40-49yrs                     16                11%                        Hypothesis tested: H0: There is no relationship between distance
              50yrs and above              18                12%                   of solid waste disposal site and contraction of related diseases H1:
              Northerner                   133               90%                   There is a relationship between distance of solid waste disposal sites
              Akan                         2                 2%                    and contraction of related diseases. The issue is that, improper siting
Ethnicity
              Ewe                          5                 3%                    of solid waste disposal sites within the community engenders health
              Others                       8                 5%                    risks among residents. Unauthorized open dump sites are located near
              None                         60                41%                   houses of residents in the Sawaba community; this has an adverse effect
              Primary                      33                22%                   on health especially those staying closer to these sites. Whether people
Level of                                                                           who stay closer to where refuse disposal sites are located are at high
              Middle level                 10                7%
education
              Senior High School (SHS) 33                    22%                   risk or not, the study sought to verify. As a result, it was found out
              Tertiary                     12                8%                    that 67% of respondents whose house are less than 5 minutes from
              Petty trader                 63                43%                   where the disposal sites are located had cholera cases before, whiles
              Food vendor                  13                9%
                                                                                   there were no cases of cholera for residents houses of 11 to 15 minutes
              Service sector (sewing,
                                                                                   away from the disposal sites as indicated in Table 3. Again, it was found
                                           14                9%                    out that for cases of malaria, 75% of respondents whose houses are less
Occupation    hairdressing etc)
              Civil servant                9                 6%                    than 5 minutes from the disposal site had cases of malaria, whiles 2
              Student                      14                9%                    % of respondents whose houses were 11 to 15 minutes away from the
              Unemployed                   35                24%                   disposal sites had malaria cases. Also, it was realized that, 75%t and
              Below GH¢200                 74                50%
                                                                                   72% of the respondents whose houses are less than 5 minutes from
                                                                                   the final disposal sites had cases of typhoid fever and skin infections
              GH¢200-GH¢400                20                14%
                                                                                   respectively, whiles there were no cases for residents who are 11 to
Monthly       Above GH¢500                 5                 3%
income                                                                             15 minutes away from the disposal sites. Further, the chi-square test
              Not earning monthly
              income
                                           49                33%                   results from Table 4, the Pearson chi-square value of 0.017 with a degree
              TOTAL                        148               100%
                                                                                   of freedom of 2 and tested at 0.05 level of significance, implies that,
                                                                                   there is a significant relationship between distance of final disposal sites
Table 1: Background characteristics of Study participants, Source: Field Survey,
                                                                                   and contraction of diseases. Hence, the rejection of the null hypothesis,
2014.
                                                                                   there is no relationship between distance of solid waste disposal site
                                                                                   and contraction of diseases. Zhu et al [7] noted that population living
                                                                                   close to a waste dump have a higher risk of contracting diseases [7].
      70%                                           61%
      60%
                                                                                   This finding has validated the research output of Zhu et al. Observation
      50%                                                                          from the results in Table 3 implies that, respondents who stay closer
      40%
                                                                    Percent
                                                                                   to refuse dumping sites had cases of malaria, cholera, typhoid fever
      30%
                              16%       18%                                        and skin infections and the farther away the lesser the risks. The
      20%
                 5%                                                                implications for these outcomes are that, residents closer to these
      10%
       0%                                                                          open dump sites are expose to health risks especially children who
               good        average      poor     very poor                         play around these sites and also defecating like the ones depicted by
 Figure 2: Assessment of solid waste disposal situation, Source: Field survey,
                                                                                   Figure 3 and Figure 4. UN-Habitat health data also show that diarrhea
 2014.                                                                             and acute respiratory infections are significantly higher for children
                                                                                   living in households where solid waste is dumped, or burned in the
                                                                                   yard, compared to households in the same cities that receive a regular
related to solid waste disposal and health. This is because in some cases          waste collection service [6]. The groups at risk from the unscientific
it is argued that, residents engaged in indiscriminate dumping acts                disposal of solid waste include the population in areas where there is
because they are not aware of the adverse effects on their health. For             no proper waste disposal method, especially the pre-school children
instance, the Municipal Health Director asserted in an interview on the            and waste workers. A female 35 years old petty trader (charcoal seller),
20th of February, 2014 that:                                                       Sissala (Northerner), who stays closer to the dumping site in Figure
                                                                                   5 was asked, what is your experience with this disposal site closer to
    “Residents having no knowledge on the dangers associated with
                                                                                   your house? She expressed to the researcher that: “I wish you could
poor disposal of refuse as one of the constraints in tackling solid
waste disposal and health problems in the community”. As a result,
                                                                                   Category                  Frequency                  Percent
it was observed on the field that almost all the respondents in Sawaba
                                                                                   Cholera                   8                          5%
community were aware of the dangers associated with improper refuse
disposal on their health. Despite their awareness, it was found out that,          Malaria                   105                        71%
8 of the respondents had cholera cases before, 105 of the respondents              Typhoid fever             15                         10%
complained of malaria cases; whiles 15 and 20 of the respondents                   Skin infections           20                         14%
had cases of typhoid fever and skin infections before respectively as              Total                     148                        100%
indicated in Table 2. Observations from the results in Table 2 implies              Table 2: Some of the related diseases contracted, Source: Field survey, 2014.
Page 5 of 6
                                    Distance of final disposal sites                 This is clear evidence of what is happening in the study prefecture.
                                    less than 5 5-10                  Total          Observation from results in Table 5 implies that, majority of the
                                                        11-15 minutes
                                    minutes     minutes                              respondents were much concerned with the mosquitoes breeding
                        Count       4               2         0              6       grounds as a result of the open dump sites (building sites), along the
            Cholera
                        Percent 67%                 33%       0%             100%    banks of water channels and other unauthorized places within the
                        Count       75              26        2              103     community. Apparently, with scenes like the one depicted in Figure
Related    Malaria
                        Percent 73%                 25%       2%             100%    5 found within the community would engender malaria cases, besides
diseases
contracted Typhoid      Count       9               3         0              12      the unpleasant odour and proliferation of other pest and diseases.
           fever        Percent 75%                 25%       0%             100%    Even though there were some methodological limitations which could
            Skin       Count   13                   5         0              18      be sources of research bias were encountered in the research process.
            infections Percent 72%                  28%       0%             100%    The application of the accidental sampling technique had its own
                        Count       101             36        2              139     limitation but did not affect the credibility of the results. It rather paved
Total                                                                                way for a thorough investigation into the problem for appropriate
                        Percent 73%                 25%       2%             100%
                                                                                     recommendations to address solid waste disposal situation and health
Table 3: Related diseases contracted and distance of disposal sites, Source: Field   risks not only among residents in the Sawaba community but Asokore-
survey, 2014.                                                                        Mampong Municipal as a whole.
                              Value            Df         Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)      Conclusion
Pearson Chi-Square            8.129a           2          0.017
Likelihood Ratio              8.719            2          0.013
                                                                                          The shared experiences from residents showed that, issues of
Linear-by-Linear
                                                                                     improper solid waste disposal have posed threat to health of residents.
                              5.684            1          0.017                      The Environmental Health and Health department, and residents in
Association
N of Valid Cases              144                                                    the community are concerned and hoping a lasting strategy would be
                                                                                     found to ensure a clean environment and good health for all. The cross
Table 4: Chi-square test for distance of disposal sites and risk of contracting
diseases, Source: Field survey, 2014.                                                tabulation and the chi-square tests on diseases contraction and distance
                                                                                     of final disposal sites from the houses showed that, residents living closer
Category                                  Frequency                Percent           to open dump sites have contracted related diseases such as malaria,
Unpleasant odour                          10                       7%
Mosquitoes breeding grounds               130                      88%
Pest and diseases proliferation           8                        5%
Total                                     148                      100%
     Table 5: Health and environmental effects, Source: Field survey, 2014.
wait till evening time, to have a feel of the mosquitoes, flies and odour
emanating from this site. It is worse when it rains but I look at this
scene helplessly. I cannot control them especially that, residents do this
at dawn and in the night”. Again, the finding from the study supports
the argument made by Zhu et al. [7] that, the group at risk from the
poor disposal of solid waste include the population in areas where there
is no proper waste disposal method, especially the pre-school children.
A clear example is the dumpsite in Figure 3 closer to “God is Great
International School” at the study area.
Effects of mode of solid waste disposal on health of residents                                      Figure 3: A dumpsite closer to a primary school.
    Considering that, most residents in the community were observed
to be involved in the act of disposing solid waste at open dumpsites
within the community such as building sites, along water channels
and unauthorized places, have the tendency to engender health risks
among not only residents but also the environment. Thus, the results
indicated in Table 5 explain the health effects in relation to the modes of
solid waste disposal among residents in the community. As regards the
effects from Table 5, it was realized that, 7 percent of the respondents
were concerned with the unpleasant odour, 88 percent were worried
about mosquito’s breeding grounds and 5 percent of the respondents
said the tendency of causing pests and diseases proliferation in the
community. Rotten organic materials pose great public health risks,
including serving as breeding grounds for disease vectors. “Improper
solid waste disposal leads to substantial negative environmental
impacts (for example, pollution of air, soil and water, and generation
of greenhouse gases from landfills), and health and safety problems
(such as diseases spread by insects and rodents attracted by garbage
                                                                                                      Figure 4: A dump site within residential area.
heaps, and diseases associated with different forms of pollution)” [9].
Page 6 of 6
                                                                                   References
                                                                                   1. Chazan D (2002) A World drowning in litter, BBC.
                                                                                   6.	 UN-Habitat (2010) Solid Waste Management in the World’s Cities: Water and
skin infections among others as result of improper refuse disposal.                    Sanitation In the World’s Cities 2010, Washington DC: Earthscan publications.
It is therefore recommended that final disposal sites for solid wastes
                                                                                   7.	 Zhu D, Asnani PU, Zurbrugg C, Anapolsky S, Mani S (2008) Improving
should be sited outside residential area, especially the open dumpsites                Municipal Solid Waste Management in India; A source book for policy makers
to avoid proliferation pest and diseases. It is further recommended                    and practioners. Washington DC: The World Bank.
that residents in the area should insist on using mosquito nets to avoid
                                                                                   8.	 Begum Z (2012) Solid Waste Management, Dissemination Paper – 19. Centre
being biting by mosquitoes. In like manner, the district assembly in the               of Excellence in Environmental Economics: Madras School of Economics,
study area should provide health education to the people on how to live                India.
in good health. Significantly, if the recommendations of this study are            9.	 United States Agency for International Development (USAID) (2009) Solid
considered and implemented, there is a high tendency of improving                      waste: generation, handling, treatment and disposal. Environmental Guidelines
the solid waste disposal situation and health risks among residents in                 for Small-Scale Activities in Africa (EGSSAA).
the Sawaba community to have a clean environment.                                  10.	Asokore Mampong Municipal Profile (2010) Profile and Current Situation of
                                                                                       Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly (AMMA).
Acknowledgement
                                                                                   11.	Department of Geography and Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University
     We express our profound gratitude to Almighty Allah for His grace and             of Science and Technology, Kumasi.
protection which saw me to successfully complete this study. We also extend our
gratitude to all lecturers in the Department of Geography and Rural Development.