Pollution in Thika municipality: assessment of community-based awareness and perception

Abstract

The main objective of this paper was to investigate on issues related to community involvement in pollution management in Thika Municipality. The study objectives were the following. • To establish and reliably quantity the pollution awareness levels III Thika Municipality • To find out the perception and attitudes towards pollution problems in Thika Municipality • To identify and appraise community mechanisms for pollution prevention. • To suggesting guidelines for community pollution prevention strategies. To achieve the objectives of this study, both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were used. The qualitative phase consisted of face-to-face interviews administered questionnaire. In addition rating questions were used to quantify public opinion. The qualitative phases consisted several focus group discussions and in-depth interviews to selected members of the community in questions. In essence, the qualitative phase was used to provide more insights and findings obtained from the quantitative phase. Among the major findings, air, water and solid wasted pollution were adversely mentioned as the problem the community. On the other hand, noise pollution was not considered to be harmful in any way to the community. This was due to the limited knowledge of the community The major effects of polluting enumerated included the destruction of buildings and other structures. And the increase in audience in Human URTIs and other related infections. In terms of institution capacity to handle pollutions, a gap was identified as it regards expected and seize delivery to key players; the local authorities. To fill this gap, community based organizations with objectives on environmental management were seen to offer implementing services. Among the major recommendations, was that all the key stakeholders i.e. the industrialist, community, and the government should put measures in place to ambit any situations that will otherwise lead to pollution disaster scenarios. In addition to that, the government needs to initiate and implement realistic policy guidelines that would control pollution problems nationwide. There lacks a comprehensive policy framework in relation to pollution and especially in the urban areas.