Assessment of Factors Affecting Solid Waste Management in Mtwara Municipality.

Solid waste is the useless, unwanted and discarded material resulting from human day to day activities in the community. Solid waste management may be defined as the discipline associated with the control of generation, storage, collection, transfer, processing and disposal of solid waste. This study was conducted in Mtwara Municipality and objective of the study was to assess factors affecting solid waste management in the municipal. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research approaches with Cross sectional survey design. Interview, documentary review, observation and questionnaire were employed for data collection from a sample of 156 respondents. The study findings show that the main factors identified to affect SWM includes inadequate funds, low budget available for waste management, poor technical knowledge, poor and inadequate facilities for waste management and lack of efficient waste management systems. Based on the study findings, researcher proposes application of Integrated Solid Waste Management Model (ISWM)for sustainability of SWM practice in the study area. Also the researcher recommends for provision of adequate waste storage, collection and transport facilities, regular collection, adequate resourcing of waste collection agents, adequate enforcement of the law and adequate human and financial resources. Keywords: Solid waste, Management, Transfer station, storage facilitie