The Assessment of Solid Waste Management in Addis Ababa: - The Case of Kirkos Sub-Cities

Abstract

Solid waste nowadays is becoming a major urban problem in most countries. In the past since the population are too small and the technological advancement is too slow, the problem of solid waste did not cause much problems and has a little attention as compared to today. Today, Addis Ababa is one of the developing countries which face the problem of solid waste. This study is conducted in one of the sub-city of Addis Ababa that is Kirkos sub-city to assess and analyze solid waste management in relation to the constraints that hamper the effectiveness of the system.The study adopts a descriptive research design. It has employed questionnaire, interview, and observation. Moreover, secondary source documents were also reviewed. A total of 287 household respondents were included from four kebeles based on proportional sampling techniques (pps). In addition to the household respondents, six MSEs and five team leaders from the kebeles and sub-city were interviewed. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data has been used as a supplement for the quantitative data. The study finds that lack of awareness by the people about proper waste management system, shortage of trucks to pick up the containers, the poorly planned settlement structure of the sub-city and weak coordination among the stakeholders poses problems on the management of the system. Thus, the study underlined that creating the awareness of the people with the collaborations of other stakeholder and building the institutional capacity are critical for its improvement.