Solid waste management at a university campus (part 3/10): waste generators, current practices, and compliance with relevant-law-provisions

Abstract

This-study is a-third-piece in a-series of 10. It can-be-subdivided into: (i) identification of waste generators, at the-subject-university; (ii) establishing background-information on Solid-Waste-Management (SWM)-system, from the-service-providers’ point of view; (iii) observation and examination of current-SWM-practices; (iv) assessment of compliance of SWM-practices with SWM-laws and regulations; and (v) SWOT-analysis. Main- instruments, employed by the-study, were-limited-to: document-analysis; regular physical-site-visits and non- participant-observations; questionnaire; and interviews. Besides maps, still-photographs, and a-flow-chart- diagram, were generated. Issues on: Universities and their-role in achieving sustainability; Waste- scavengers/pickers; Potential-dangers of uncontrolled-waste-dumpsite; Socio-cultural-barriers; and Financial- assistance for SWM-projects, were also-elaborated on. Numerous- barriers, to-effective-SWM, at-the-university, were reported; lack of readily-available, and sufficient- allocation of financial-resources, was identified as the- most-serious-barrier. On-the-other-hand, the-both- departments, responsible for SWM, have declared, that they have-being-stretched, indeed, to-perform their-duty, and they are just doing their-very-best, under the- circumstances. The-study also-revealed that: the-current SWM-system, at-the-university, is largely unacceptable, as it-is characterized as: (a) of Inferior-Quality and accessibility of SWM; (b) Inefficient; (c) of Poor-Legitimacy and social-acceptability; (d) Potentially-damaging to Health and Environmental-sustainability; and (e) Financially-incapable. In-particular, this-study has justified, that on-overall, the-open and uncontrolled-waste- dumpsite, at the-university, is making, all: environmental-pollution, health-impacts, and safety-violation, highly probable. People/students, residing near the-dumpsite, and waste-scavengers, as-well-as ecosystems of the- Kesses-Dam-complex and the-Sosiani-River, and ground-water of Rift-Valley-Basin, are facing impending- threat, from the-open and uncontrolled-dumpsite. The-study also-points-out on the-deficiencies/ gaps, that need- to-be bridged, to-meet the-legal-obligations, towards SWM, as there is a-gross non-compliance with the-legal SWM-provisions (both; international and national). Results of the-SWOT- analysis, points-out, that it-is necessary to-maximize both; strengths and opportunities, minimize the-external-threats, transform the-identified weaknesses into strengths, and to-take advantage of opportunities, along with minimizing both; internal- weaknesses and external-threats. In-this-regard, several-tailored-recommendations, were offered, including: on the-actual-operations (at both; a-long-term and short-term-scale); and on-Social involvement, in-WM. Besides, areas for further-research were identified. The-findings of this-study will-be used as-a-baseline, in-further- development of a-tailored-Integrated SWM-model/system, for the-university. The-study is, hopefully, also- contributes (in-its-small-way) to the-body of knowledge on-the-subject-matter