ISSUES IN MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT: GAMPAHA MUNICIPAL COUNCIL AREA

Abstract

Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) is one of the main challenges in urban environment in most of the countries around the world. Sri Lanka is one of the examples. MSWM is an alarming aspect that needs higher attention from the central government and local government authorities in a country. The case study area of Gampaha Municipal Council (GMC), in the last three years, waste generation is about 45-50 metric tons per day and collect only about 15-20 metric tons per day. GMC collects only about 35% of wastes. Urbanization, population growth, growing economies, and the rise of living standards of people have triggered this challenge. This study is designed to identify key issues related to MSWM with special reference to GMC in Sri Lanka. This study used a mixed research method to collect data and analysis. Data collection was conducted through semi-structured in-depth interviews with key informants (07), informal interviews with residents (20), field observations and secondary data
sources.

The findings of the study reveal that even, there are laws, policies concerning the effective management of solid waste in Sri Lanka, implementation and monitoring are the problematic areas. The legal systems need to be tightened and penalties need to be established for defaulters/polluters, especially for polluters and companies creating excessive waste. The next issues are a lack of proper source separation and lack of minimization of waste at the point of generation. Further, a lack of knowledge in developing technically sound and contextually relevant MSWM approaches in the Municipal Council and No proper record-keeping system in the council such as to identify the types, volume, quality of waste in lane-specific, zone-specific ways and lack of financial support for MSWM can be identified as key issues.

MSWM should be an adaptive management approach and evolved to suit the resilient urban environment. In addition, national and local level governments need to run frequent awareness campaigns. The deployment of resources and infrastructure should be aligned with the rate of urbanization and the rate of waste generation. Sustainable participation of the public and private sectors for MSWM is an unavoidable aspect that has to be enhanced for the efficiency of solid waste management. Experts need to be deployed and awareness and training need to be given to responsible parties of MSWM in the councils as well as for the general public to have an effective MSWM. These findings and suggestions facilitate the development and implementation of suitable and effective MSWM policies in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: Solid Waste, MSW, MSW Management, MSW strategies, MSW policies