Assessment of Solid Waste Management Practices in Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia

Even though solid waste management has become a major public health and environmental concern in urban areas of Ethiopia, only 2% of the population receive solid waste management services. The primary objective of this study is to assess solid waste management practices of Bahir Dar City. The technique of multistage random sampling has been employed to draw 350 households for this study, with both quantitative and qualitative primary data put into good use. Finally, the quantitative data has been analyzed by means of descriptive statistics with the results indicating that 78% of the respondents feel that the current solid waste management service is far below the required level; whereas, 22% of the respondents show satisfaction with the existing waste management service. The municipality has planned to provide solid waste management service for the residents once a week, but the survey results demonstrate that only 29% of the sample households received solid waste management services weekly, indicating that the performance of solid waste management service is low. Among 350 households, a sum of 66.6% practice illegal solid waste disposal with the remaining 33.4% waiting until solid waste collectors come to the area to take the waste away. Therefore, participation of urban households, micro and small enterprises, and governmental and non-governmental organizations plays a great role to upgrade the existing low status of solid waste management services.