AN ASSESSMENT OF THE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES OF WASTE MANAGEMENT IN WARA COMMUNITY, ILORIN WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, KWARA STATE

ABSTRACT Background: One of the greatest problems facing developing countries is the unhealthy disposal of solid wastes which resulted from human activities for survival. The poor state of waste management in Nigeria is caused by inadequate facilities, poor funding, and poor implementation of policies as well as wrong lifestyles. If this waste is accumulated, it may lead to degradation of the urban environment, stresses on limited natural resources, as well as various health issues. Waste management is a science that addresses the logistics, environmental impact, social responsibility and cost of an organization’s waste disposal. Awareness and education are very necessary about waste disposal for household people. Proper waste disposal is important for protection of the environment and the lack of knowledge, irregular and unplanned dumping of waste are the main reasons of improper waste disposal. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of waste management in Wara community, Ilorin West Local Government Area, Kwara state. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 426 adults in Wara community, Ilorin who were randomly selected using a multistage sampling technique. Data was collected using interviewer administered questionnaires. Data was analyzed using SPSS 22.0. Results: In the findings from the assessment of their awareness of waste disposal methods, open dumping (98.1%), burning (98.1%), burying (89.1%) and government waste bins (80.9%) were the predominant methods of waste disposal that members of the community were aware of. They were less aware of the following methods: land filling (59.8%), incineration (60.6%), and composting (56.5%). The study showed that only a few were assisted to know the waste disposal methods. This revealed a good knowledge of waste disposals methods among the people of Wara community in Ilorin West local government area of Ilorin, Kwara state. 57% of the respondents obtained their knowledge of the waste disposal methods through family and friends, followed by 26% that obtained their information from the radio. A few others obtained their information from health workers (11%), social media and newspaper (3% each). This calls for the need of creating more awareness by the health workers. 64.2% of them have at one point or the other practiced burning and open dumping (54.4%). However, current practices revealed burning to be the predominant method (57.3%) while more than one-third of the respondents (36.9%) adopted open dumping method as their current practice. Conclusion: The findings from this study showed that the residents of Wara community have a commendably good attitude towards the management of their waste products. They are aware of the necessity of environmental sanitation and believe that proper waste disposal can promote good health. It is therefore believed that with further efforts to increase the level of awareness on waste management practices, stating its effects and consequences will help to reduce health related problems as a result of poor waste management practices as well as encourage adoption of better waste disposal methods.