Solid waste disposal and its effect on the socio-economic environment in residential estates

Abstract

Pollution prevention has been one of the major endeavors for most of the present local, regional and national jurisdictions not only in Kenya but worldwide. Increase in population, technological developments and urbanization amongst other factors have led to production of great volumes of both organic and inorganic; biodegradable and non biodegradable solid waste products. This calls for the need to develop and adopt new and more environmentally sustainable approaches to solid waste disposal in place of the 'ancient' ways of dealing with waste. Appreciating the impacts of various methods of solid waste disposal on the social, economic and biophysical elements of the natural and the built environment could act as one of the motivating factors towards this end. This study therefore endeavors to bring out the conflict that exists between various methods of solid waste disposal and the socio-economic environment. The socio-economic environment is further categorized into various attributes to increase the workability. The study is presented in five chapters. The first chapter introduces the problem as it appears in the global context and narrows down to the case study area. It also states the study hypothesis, objectives and significance. Chapter two presents the literature reviewed from the works of various authors. Chapter three introduces the case study area integrating the background information including climatic conditions, level of development and land use structure among others. Chapter four contains presentation and analysis of the data collected in furtherance of the study objectives. Finally, chapter five gives the study findings, conclusion and the recommendations thereof.