Scenario of present and future of Solid Waste Generation in Ethiopia: A case study of Mekelle city

Solid Waste generation is the by-product of the Urbanization. It is commonly considered as a Urban Issue. It is highly related with Economic growth, degree of industrialization and consumption pattern and lavish lifestyle of urbanites. Solid Waste generation and management is a burning issue all over the world and the planners and policy formulators are finding it extremely difficult to handle this problem mainly because of haphazard urbanization. Solid Waste contributes 3% of total Green House Gases Emission Globally, which are culprit for Global Warming and Climate Change. Largely whole of Africa continent is very much vulnerable to the Climate Change. Lack of technological advancement with poverty makes the problem of GHGs emission compound which will prove to be suicidal if not timely tackled.

In Ethiopia, similar to other developing countries, the increasing amount of solid waste generation is resulted mostly from rapid urbanization and population explosion. Majority of inhabitants in most towns and cities of the country usually use unsafe solid waste disposal practices, such as open dumping, burning, burying etc. (Melaku and Degnet, 2008).

Total urban population of Ethiopia is 12,566,942. On the basis of current available data the Municipal Solid Waste generation per capita (kg/capita/day) is 0.30.Total Solid Waste Generation is 3781 tones/day in the country.

Information available on existing Solid Waste rate of generation, composition and source of Mekelle City is deemed to be scant. There is no comprehensive study conducted in Mekelle city to investigate the rates of generation and characteristics of solid waste from different urban activities and sources.

The main aim of this paper is to quantify the present generation of Solid Waste and project the generation in future by projecting population growth in Mekelle City and find out the causative factors for the same.