IMPLICATIONS OF POOR WASTE DISPOSAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS WITHIN THE WA MUNICIPALITY OF GHANA

The management of waste has become one of the key environmental concerns of the past decades with hundreds of scientific papers published on the topic every year. However, there seems to be paucity of studies on the implications of poor waste disposal management practices on schools in general in Ghana and Wa Municipality in particular. The purpose of this study was to investigate the implications of poor waste disposal management practices on Senior High Schools in Wa Municipality. The study adopted a mixed method explanatory sequential approach with both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. The tools used to capture the required data includes, questionnaires, interview schedules and observation. The study respondents were students, teachers and school management of selected Senior High Schools within the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region of Ghana. The study respondents were one hundred and twenty two (122) respondents comprising 45 students, 45 teachers, 30 school management officials, 1 education officer and 1 waste management officer. The study revealed that, the commonest type of waste generated within the Senior High Schools in the Municipality were food waste, rubbish, papers, plastic materials. Key findings of the research shows that waste was not separated into plastics, papers, organic waste and was haphazardly disposed due to lack of dustbins. Again, the study found out that uncollected waste in Senior High Schools causes poor sanitation. It also emerged from the study that high rate of population growth in Senior High Schools within the Wa Municipality have resulted in the generation of an enormous volume of solid waste, which poses a serious threat to environmental quality and human health and this causes disease outbreaks; cases of cholera as well as other diarrhea diseases in Senior High Schools within the Wa Municipality. The study recommends that the Wa Municipal Assembly and ZoomLion Company should supply dustbins to Senior High Schools within the Wa Municipality. Finally, the study recommends adequate resourcing of waste disposal management for Senior High Schools within the Wa Municipality. The waste management institutions should be adequately resourced to ensure efficient and effective waste disposal management in Senior High Schools within the Wa Municipality. The Wa Municipal Assembly should liaise with other corporate bodies like the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to pull financial resources to support the institutions in charge of managing waste especially the ZoomLion Ghana Ltd. With the support, adequate dustbin and core waste disposal management equipment such as compaction trucks roll on/roll off trucks, skip loaders would be purchased to ensure effective waste collection and disposal.