MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PROBLEM IN NIGERIA - THE ROLE OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE OPERATORS

摘要

In all developing countries, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) presents a growing challenge to the Government. In Nigeria, and particularly in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, the absence of a National Policy and legislation on waste management presents difficult situations on how to handle organic and dry wastes. The operations of the Abuja Environment Protection Board (AEPB), an agency set up by Government to manage waste in Abuja has over the years tried to adopt different approaches towards disposals of waste but the approaches have not addressed the challenges of waste management in the Municipality. In most cases, wastes are commonly dumped in open lands located in the city outskirts and sometimes such wastes are dumped around residential buildings and in some occasions inside drainages thereby blocking the flow of water and providing breeding places for mosquitoes. These practices result to health hazards, pollution of ground water, and spread of infectious diseases like malaria, typhoid fever and foul odours. The Authority of the Federal Capital Territory under the Federal Capital Development Development Administration have been making several efforts through the AEPB to control waste management in the Municipality. For example several disposal trucks have been purchased by the Government which are used to carry Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) from residential buildings, market places, offices, streets and construction sites where the dry wastes are usually burnt while the organic waste are dumped on the open surface. The increasing population of the city increased demand and pressure on facilities such that the efforts by the Government to manage the waste became inadequate. So, the inadequacy of the Government operators necessitated the hiring of the services of private operators by both the Government and organized residential groups to compliment the efforts of the Government in the management of the MSW. The problem remains that despite the awareness-building programmes embarked upon by the Government and the Private Operators to get the various households to cooperate with operators by gathering their wastes in containers provided for waste and segregating organic waste at source in order to maximize the composting of the organic waste by the AEPB, little success is achieved either by the public or private operators. Again, the absence of any legislation or Government policy on MSW in the Federal Capital Territory makes it almost impossible even for private operators to function effectively hence the urgent need for Government to intensify its tax system on all categories of residents in the FCT in order to strengthen the incentive approach to the private operators so that waste management and control will be effective in the city. The legislature needs to enact laws that will make it an offence for residents to dump wastes outside the places provided by the law. In addition, the AEPB ought to be equipped both in capacity building structure and material resources to enable it carry out successful campaign on the public role towards enhancing Waste Management in the city. However, the basic challenges in the approach remain the practical issues of implementation of policies and laws, proper development of waste disposal sites on the part of Government and the orientation of citizens towards appreciating the need for embracing laws and policies that could revolutionize our Municipal Waste Management System.