Abstract:
The municipal solid waste causes substantial harm to the environment and human health if mismanaged.
With a rapidly expanding human population and growing trend of urbanization, problems related to the
management of municipal solid waste have become of considerable importance in Ethiopia from both
environment and human safety. This urges for better understanding of the existing practices and problems
of solid waste management in emerging towns of Ethiopia. This study therefore assessed the existing solid
waste management practices and problems in Sekota town, Waghimra zone, NNNPR. Samples were
selected using probabilistic and non- probabilistic techniques .The primary data were collected via
questionnaires, interview, and field observations. Whereas the secondary data were extracted from
different published and unpublished materials. A total of 95 respondents were used in the study. The
findings of the study revealed that the main types of SW in Sekota are peels of vegetables, ash and dust,
plastic, paper and cardboard, leaf and the physical composition of MSW in the city is composed from
both biodegradable and non-degradable components, the current SWM practice of City is weak and also
there is a problem on solid waste reduction strategy: separation, reuse, recycle, and resource recovery.
According to the results different main factors that aggravate the existing poor status of SWM practice in
the city. These are: socio-cultural, technical and institutional factors. To alleviate the problems the study
suggest that. The current study showed that the solid waste production rate of Sekota town at the
household level is 8,380.869 kg/day, 58,666kg/weak, 251,426kg/month and 3,0590,28.5 kg/year
with 41,696 population of Sekota Town. The per capital solid waste generation rate is 0.201
kg/cap/day/25 households. The study employed binary logistic regression model to identify the
factors that determine households decision to practice solid waste management in the study
revealed that family size, education status, households perception towards SWM, and distance
were the main factors that determine households decision to practice solid waste management in
the study area. Poor municipal solid waste management is practiced in the town. Therefore, it is
recommended that the municipal should develop good infrastructure, and prepare appropriate disposal
sites where solid wastes can be disposed. Awareness raising among the inhabitants and also organizing
the youth groups in small and micro enterprises in solid waste management activities is found to be
important. Normal monitoring of the functionality of the system is also essential.