- Title
- The spatial extent, practices, and impacts of illegal solid waste dumping across an income gradient in Makhanda and Knysna, South Africa
- Creator
- Tombe, Yumunu Chenjerai
- ThesisAdvisor
- Thondhlana, G.
- ThesisAdvisor
- Ruwanza, S.
- Subject
- Uncatalogued
- Date
- 2024-10-11
- Type
- Academic theses
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/464875
- Identifier
- vital:76553
- Description
- The disposal of household solid waste (HSW) through illegal dumping has become a widespread issue globally, especially in developing countries. The problem has been exacerbated by several factors such as rapid population growth, urbanization, poor infrastructure, poor enforcement of bylaws, mismanagement, poor municipal service delivery, and lack of funding, resulting in most urban residents resorting to illegal solid waste dumping (ISWD). Illegal solid waste dumping by urban residents in most developing countries is becoming a standard occurrence particularly along roadsides, vacant plots, riverbanks, forests edges, and in commonages near and within human settlements. In most South African towns and cities, the practice of ISWD is an immense social, economic, and environmental problem. The practice has led to nationwide environmental pollution and has posed significant socio-economic and health risks to urban residents particularly the urban poor, who reside in areas where ISWD is more pronounced. Studies on ISWD in South Africa are mostly within metropolitans and cities neglecting medium-sized towns like Makhanda and Knysna where such information is needed to improve municipal household solid waste (HSW) management plans and policies. Using street surveys, illegal dumpsite mapping, waste categorization templates, and household survey interviews the study examined the spatial extent, composition, dumpsite sizes, as well as residents’ practices and perceived causes and impacts of ISWD across different income groups in two medium-sized towns of Makhanda and Knysna, South Africa. The results showed that more dumpsites were enumerated in Makhanda (155) than in Knysna (60), however, the occurrence, size and prevalence of illegal dumpsites were unevenly distributed, with most dumpsites being in low-income compared to high-income neighbourhoods. In both towns, most of the dumpsites were within open access areas such as roadsides, vacant plots, and commonages. The composition of waste within dumpsites consisted mostly of household waste (Makhanda = 42% and Knysna = 49%), garden waste (Makhanda = 37% and Knysna = 30%), and construction waste (Makhanda = 21% and Knysna = 21%). More residents in low-income than in high-income neighbourhoods reported dumping, attributing it primarily to poor municipal services (Makhanda= 59% and Knysna= 54%). Within both towns, environmental impacts of ISWD were experienced by residents from both income groups, with over 50% of the respondents citing visual pollution as the most serious impact. The health impacts of ISWD were exclusively reported by low-income residents with over 30% reporting TB and Rashes as the key health impacts. Overall, the research concluded that ISWD distribution, prevalence, dumpsite sizes and impacts were unevenly distributed across low-income and high-income neighbourhoods with the former disproportionately facing v an overall higher occurrence of illegal dumpsites and subsequent health risks. The occurrence of more dumpsites in low-income areas seem to suggest that factors like socio-economic inequalities, historical legacies, lack of education and awareness, and poor municipal services in these areas are at play and need to be addressed to mitigate ISWD. To tackle the problem of ISWD a collaborative approach is recommended, one that incorporates stakeholders, households and municipal efforts and improvements. Such solutions could include improved municipal funding to develop an efficient service delivery system, solid waste awareness campaigns in communities, and provisioning of bins along open access areas.
- Description
- Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Environmental Science, 2024
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (109 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Science, Environmental Science
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Tombe, Yumunu Chenjerai
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike" License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | TOMBE-MSC-TR24-190.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |