Solid Waste Management Practices and Sustainability of Environmental Conservation Projects in Kisumu Central Sub-county, Kenya

Abstract

With the extraordinary increase in population worldwide, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, sustainable environmental initiatives have emerged as vital components for promoting good health, good environment and aesthetics in urban and peri-urban communities. A key threat to sustainable environmental conservation comes from effectiveness of waste management practices implemented within respective contexts. The research work thus studied solid waste management practices and sustainability of environmental conservation projects in Kisumu Central Sub-County, Kenya. The study was guided by objects: To assess how waste collection influences sustainability of environmental conservation projects; to determine how waste transportation influences sustainability of environmental conservation projects; to establish how waste disposal influences sustainability of environmental conservation projects and to examine how financing waste management influences sustainability of environmental conservation projects. The urban ecology theory was adopted in this research. The employed research design was descriptive survey. The study targeted a population 52,163 households involved in waste generation in Kisumu Central Sub-County. Krejcie and Morgan table was applied to derive 382 respondents as a sample size, who were be picked out by use of stratified random sampling technique. Quantitative data were collected by means of structured questionnaire. The instruments were validated using content validity and the reliability was tested by pilot testing in Kisumu East sub-county with 38 respondents. Descriptive statistics of arithmetic mean and standard deviation were utilized in analysis with support of statistical package for social sciences version 20 and the disclosure was given out using tables of frequency distribution. The finding showed that waste collection posed a positive but insignificant influence on sustainability of environmental conservation projects. On the contrary, finding revealed that; waste transportation exerted positive and statistically significant influence on environmental conservation projects, waste disposal posed positive and statistically significant influence on environmental conservation projects, and financing waste management has positive and statistically significant influence on environmental conservation projects. Conclusion arrived was that solid waste management practices significantly influence environmental conservation projects within Kisumu Central Sub-County. Study recommended for clear policies regulating solid waste management practices needed to be enforced to realize sustainability of environmental conservation projects Kisumu Central Sub-County. Further suggested for further research in other sub-county and to the entire nation as well