The use of geographic information system in site suitability analysis for waste disposal in Mubi town

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1 Sky Journal of Soil Science and Environmental Management Vol. 5(2), pp , March, 2016 Available online ISSN Sky Journals Full Length Research Paper The use of geographic information system in site suitability analysis for waste disposal in Mubi town Geoffrey Naphtali 1 * and Ezekiel Vimtim 2 1 Geography department, faculty of science, Adamawa State, University, Mubi, Adamawa State, Nigeria. 2 Office of the Director of Works, Gombi L. G. A. of Adamawa State. Accepted 28 January, 2016 This research work aims at mapping suitable and managing waste sites in Mubi metropolis, the materials and methods used for this research include; topographic map, aerial photograph and base map of Mubi town. These maps where georeferenced, digitized and overlaid to produce a composite and up to date map of the area, other data used include the GPS (Global positioning system) to collect the coordinates of the solid waste dump sites, questionnaires were used to get real time information about the situation. All these were incorporated into the GIS (Geographic Information System) database to form the bases for analysis. The findings show that there are a lot of problems in Mubi town on solid waste disposal and management. Key words: Mapping, management, digitizing, georeferencing, geodatabase, waste disposal, composite map. INTRODUCTION The environment is heading towards a potential risk due to unsustainable waste disposal. It is a sensitive issue which brings about serious environmental problems in two days world. The present situation of direct dumping of waste without proper inspection and separation, leads to serious impact of environmental pollution causing a tremendous growth in health hazards and health related problems (Agunwanba et al., 2003). Solid wastes are all the wastes arising from human and animal activities that are normally solid and are discarded as useless or unwanted. The term solid waste as used in this paper is all inclusive, encompassing the heterogeneous mass of throwaways from the urban community as well as the more homogeneous accumulation of agricultural, industrial, and mineral wastes (Takele Tadesse, 2014). From the days of primitive society, humans and animals have used the resources of the earth to support life and dispose of wastes. In early times, the disposal of human *Corresponding author. geoffreynaphtali@gmail.com. and other wastes did not pose a significant problem, because the population was small and the amount of land available for the assimilation of wastes was large. Although emphasis is currently being placed on recycling and fertilizer value of solid wastes, the farmer in ancient times probably made a bolder attempt at this. Indications of recycling may still be seen in the primitive, yet sensible, agricultural practices in many of the developing nations where farmers recycle solid wastes for fuel or fertilizer values (Takele Tadesse, 2014). Solid waste management is one among the basic essential services provided by municipal authorities in the country to keep urban centres clean. However, it is among the most poorly rendered services in the basket the systems applied are unscientific, outdated and inefficient; population coverage is low; and the poor are marginalized. Waste is littered all over leading to insanitary living conditions. Municipal laws governing the urban local bodies do not have adequate provisions to deal effectively with the ever-growing problem of solid waste management. With rapid urbanization, the situation is becoming critical. The urban population has grown five fold in the last six decades with million people living

2 Naphtali and Vimtim 27 in urban areas than before (Asnani, 2005). Thousands of tons of solid waste are generated daily in Africa. Most of it ends up in open dumps and wetlands, contaminating surface and ground water and posing major health hazards. Generation rates, available only for select cities and regions, are approximately 0.5 kilograms per person per day in some cases reaching as high as 0.8 kilograms per person per day. While this may seem modest compared to the1 2 kg per person per day generated in developed countries, most waste in Africa is not collected by municipal collection systems because of poor management, fiscal irresponsibility or malfeasance, equipment failure, or inadequate waste management budgets (EGSSAA, 2009). Though high and low value recyclables are typically recovered and reused, these make up only a small proportion of the total waste stream. The great majority of the waste (70 percent) is organic. In theory, this waste could be converted to compost or used to generate biogas, but in situations where rudimentary solid waste management systems barely function, it is difficult to promote innovation, even when it is potentially cost effective to do so. In addition, hazardous and infectious materials are discarded along with general waste throughout the continent. This is an especially dangerous condition that complicates the waste management problem (EGSSAA, 2009). Throughout most of sub-saharan Africa solid waste generation exceeds collection capacity. This is in part due to rapid urban population growth: while only 35 percent of the sub-saharan population lives in urban areas, the urban population grew by 150% between 1970 and 2015 (EGSSAA, 2009). Problems with the disposal of wastes can be traced from the time when humans first began to congregate in tribes, villages, and communities and the accumulation of wastes became a consequence of life. Littering of food and other solid wastes in medieval towns-the practice of throwing wastes into the unpaved streets, roadways, and vacant land-led to the breeding of rats, with their attendant fleas carrying bubonic plague. The lack of any plan for the management of solid wastes thus led to the epidemic of plague, the Black Death that killed half of the fourteenth century Europeans and caused many subsequent epidemics with high death tolls. It was not until the nineteenth century that public health officials, who began to realize that food wastes, had to be collected and disposed of in a sanitary manner to control rodents and flies, the vectors of disease (Takele Tadesse, 2014). Over two decades, the problem of solid waste disposal and management have become so alarming that a lot of seminars, conferences and symposia have been organized in various states and local government councils across Nigeria to address the problems of solid waste collection and disposal. Besides, hundreds of millions of Naira have been spend on solid waste disposal and management, yet without appreciable success. Dumping and collection points were created, incinerators built drainages and gutters constructed, sanitation officer were recruited, and campaigns on mobilization and sensitization on environmental degradation and sanitation awareness through war against indiscipline (WAI) proved abortive. Both the print and electronic media did carry out these campaigns, but all efforts turned out to be ineffective,as very little has been achieved so far in this regard (Bobboi, 2006). Waste generation is escalated with increase in urbanization (human population). The effect of poor solid waste disposal and management could lead to disease outbreak such as typhoid fever, malaria fever, chronic diarrhea and cholera just to mention but a few. (Adebayo and Tukur, 1999) These effects occur within hours or days of the time that a person consumes contaminated water or food. These can make people seriously ill and can be dangerous to persons whose immune systems are already weak. There has been serious awareness regarding waste management amongst many countries. There has been also development of new technologies which have contributed a lot in very less time span to waste management. The Geographic Information System (GIS) helps to manipulate data in the computer to stimulate alternative and to take the most effective decision in waste management and disposal (G.M. Savage L.F. etal, 1998) Therefore, this research seeks to identify the areas of weakness and problems which may lead to disease outbreak due to improper waste disposal and management in Mubi metropolis. Focus of the study The study aims at using Geographic Information System (GIS) as a decision making tool for analyzing suitable site for waste disposal in Mubi metropolis, towards producing a Geographic Information System models for proper and sustainable planning of waste disposal and management in Mubi Metropolis, with the objectives of; i.) Using geographic information system techniques in collecting information about the waste being generated and mapping the existing waste disposal site in the metropolis. ii.) Using geographic information system in analyzing the best or suitable areas for waste disposal in the study area. METHODOLOGY Study area The study area (Mubi) lies between Latitude and

3 Sky. J. Soil. Sci. Environ. Manage MUBI TOWN LEGENG Refuse dum ps.dbf Lam urde ward River yedzeram.shp Lokuw a ward. Yelwa ward Gude ward. Nassarawo w ard. Kolere ward. Sabon layi. W ard boundary N Kilometers Figure 1. Propose refuse dump sites in Mubi metropolis North of the equator and Longitude and of the Greenwich Meridian. Mubi is the metropolitan headquarters of Mubi Local Government Area of Adamawa State. This Local Government was created on the 7 th February It is situated at the Eastern part of the state. It shares common boarder with Hong Local Government Area by the west, Michika to the North, and Maiha to the South. The Local Government has a population of 243,414 in 1991 census, within an area of approximately 5,400 square kilometers (Adebayo, 2004) (Figure 1). Source of data The various data used for this research work includes both primary and secondary source of data. The secondary data includes the base map of Mubi produced by GIS laboratory Adamawa State University Mubi 2015, satellite image and quick birth air photograph of Mubi captured in July Primary data include coordinates of the existing refuse dump sites in Mubi metropolis which were taken using GPS (Germin 72), 80 questionnaires were used to collect information on waste generation, management and disposal. The materials

4 Naphtali and Vimtim 29 used in this research work includes, 80 questionnaires, print materials, GPS, computer Hardware and software; these were used for data collection, data input, data manipulation, data analysis and production of data (output). The procedure of each stage is presented in the later paragraphs. Hardware used The following hardware was used to capture and analyze data in this research work, computer laptop, an HP Office-jet 5610 printer, Gen X USB Scanner, Global Positioning System (GPS). Software used GIS software for this research work includes; Arc view 3.2a and ILWIS 3.1 Academic. Other software such as CorelDraw 11 and Microsoft 2003 were also used. Data collection The coordinate of the solid waste dump sites were collected with the GPS from the field and it was used to produce the database. The satellite image of Mubi produced in 2015 was obtained from the GIS lab of Adamawa State University Mubi, other data collected are the population of the area from the national population commission office Yola. Resident view and responses from each ward using the questionnaires. Data Input Hp Office-jet scanner 5600 series and DELL Laptop were used for the data input. The map of the study area was scanned. The satellite image was imported, georeferenced and digitize using the GIS software. Data manipulation Three different software were used in the data manipulation. These include Corel Draw 11, Arcview 3.2a, and Ilwis 3.1. The Latitudes and Longitudes of the refuse dump sites were acquired using the hand-held GPS and were transformed into the regional standard map projection and Datum i.e. UTM-Zone 33, Clarke 1880/Minna Datum through the transformed coordinates of Ilwis GIS software. The transformed UTM values were used as X and Y coordinates for each of the refuse dump sites. The township map that was obtained from Adamawa State University, Mubi, 2010 passed through the following procedures; it was scanned into Corel Draw11 and was exported and imported into Ilwis where it was georectified. The coordinate values of the four corners of the map were used to generate the georectified corner map. Four points were selected as tie- points. The map was finally re-sampled into an already created coordinate system. The essence of the map georectification and re-sampling was to make all the recorded coordinates of the refuse dumping sites acquired by the hand held GPS to fall at the exact places on the map. Seven wards of the Mubi metropolis were digitized on the map as themes using on-screen digitizing capability of the Arcview software. The attributes of all the refuse dumping sites were incorporated into the database of the Arcview software as attribute tables. These were linked to the main view for analysis. The information from the data captured was analyzed using the Arcview 3.2a software to create maps and tabular data which can be queried. From the map database, the find icon or modules of the software were used to find the location of the refuse dumping sites, identify tool was also used to query each of the refuse dumping sites when the database has been linked up with the map by simply using the identify tool to click on any refuse dumping site. Data output Arc view software was used to produce high quality and easily comprehended, impressive maps and tables. The map output was in a form Layout and print screen module (as it appears on the screen). Other components that were needed in the map were designed in the Layout. Layout makes it easy to produce quality map. The components that were added to the map include scale, legend, title and the North arrow. The spatial attributes were stored and presented as tables. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Solid waste generation It can be seen in Table 1 that most of the waste generated are from household and market places. Regularity of solid waste disposal 0% of the respondent said that the solid waste generated in their dwellings is disposed daily, 10% agreed that the waste generated is disposed just twice a week, while 30% responded that the waste generated is disposed three times in a week (Table 2). The negative effect of improper waste disposal on human health and the environment The majority (80%) of the respondents agreed that improper waste disposal poses negative effect on both human health and the physical environment, while only 20% responded that improper waste disposal has no

5 30 Sky. J. Soil. Sci. Environ. Manage. Table 1. Distribution of respondent s based on solid waste generation. Areas of waste generation Frequency Percentage Garbage from households Manufacturing products Mechanics workshops Markets/business centers Table 2. Distribution of respondent s based on regularity in solid waste disposal per week per household. Days No of respondents Percentage Daily Twice Thrice Table 3. Distribution of respondent s based on the negative effects of improper solid waste disposal. Areas of effects No of respondents Percentage Human health Environment Animal health Table 4. Distribution of respondent s based on where solid waste is disposed. Site of disposal No of respondents Percentage Any open space Dumping sites Streets Curter/water ways negative effect on both human health and the physical environment (Table 3). Disposal of waste in open spaces From the findings, it way realized that (70%) of the respondents agreed that the solid waste generated in their dwelling is disposed in any open space available in their environment, 20% agreed that the waste is disposed on the streets while only 10% agreed that solid waste generated in their dwelling is disposed in the dumping site, therefore, 90% of the respondent agree that the waste generated in Mubi is improperly disposed (Table 4). Waste management system 20% of the respondents agreed that solid waste in their

6 Naphtali and Vimtim 31 Table 5. Distribution of respondent s based on types of solid waste management system known to them. Types of management system No of respondents Percentage Burning Evacuation Land filling Composting Recycling Table 6. Distribution of respondent s based on their understanding on who is responsible for solid waste management. Responsibility No of respondents Percentage Household Community worker/ngos Government dwelling is managed by burning, while 80% agreed that the solid waste is managed by evacuation (Table 5). Responsibility for managing solid waste in wards The result from the research indicates that 10% of the respondents agreed that the solid waste generated in their dwelling is managed by them, 30% responded that the community cooperate workers/ngos help in managing the waste while only 60% agreed that the solid waste is managed by the government (Table 6). Methods used in managing solid waste The findings shows that 20% of the respondents said that the method used for solid waste management is satisfactory, while majority of the respondent disagreed that the method used is not satisfactory i.e. 80%. Proposal The criteria used for the proposal of new dumping sites are basically based on the need for easy accessibility by trucks to evacuate the refuse dumped since burning the refuse within residential areas is not good for human health. Therefore, no refuse dumps sites are proposed in these wards (Gude, Nassarawo and Kolere), because of the bad condition of their roads. Another criteria used for the proposal of the new refuse dump sites is the need to avoid crossing roads in order to dump refuse since in most cases, children are the ones sent to dump refuse; a situation which could cause a lot of traffic problems or even accidents. Hence, the proposals in Lamurde, Yelwa and Sabon Layi are all based on such criteria basically. Summary From the data presented and analysis performed, the following results are observed to be the findings of this research work: i.) Garbage is the major source of solid waste in Mubi metropolis. ii.) Majority of Mubi town dwellers dispose their solid wastes on daily basis. iii.) Highest percentage of the people in Mubi metropolis said improper management of solid waste has negative impact on human health and the physical environment. iv.) It is observed also from this research that most people dispose their solid waste in any open space which contributes to improper management of solid waste. v.) Majority of the respondents said solid wastes generated in their environment are managed by evacuation. vi.) The majority also responded that government is responsible for management of solid waste generated in their environment. vii.) The research also revealed that solid waste management methods used are not satisfactory. Conclusion From the study s result, solid waste disposal practices by the people in Mubi town are poor and the management (evacuation) by the government agency responsible is not satisfactory. This could have negative impact on the health of the people and the physical environment. And effort is not made to resolve the problem in the area, this waste is causing diseases like the recent out break of cholera in the town that claimed many lives, other health problem cause by this ugly situation are high cases of typhoid, malaria etc. Recommendations The following recommendations are made based on the

7 32 Sky. J. Soil. Sci. Environ. Manage. research results found. -People (general public) in Mubi metropolis should learn to make effective use of the solid waste disposal sites rather than dumping refuse in any open space. -The refuse dump site which has no proper road network for easy evacuation should be put out of use so as to stop management of solid waste by burning in the residential areas. A proper use of the proposed sites can be made to solve this problem. -Government should intensify its effort in timely and frequent evacuation of solid wastes generated in the refuse dumping sites. -This research should be conducted repeatedly from time- to- time in order to make information ready for decision makers about solid waste management in the metropolis. This is necessary because land use and road networks are bound to change with time. Asani PU (2006). Solid waste management, indian infrastructural report 2006:160. Takele T (2004). Lecture notes for environmental and occupational health students. Ethiopian public health training institute : REFERENCE Adebayo AA (2004). Geographical Synthesis. Mubi region. Yola, Paraclet Publisher. Pp Adebayo AA, Tukur AL (1999). Adamawa in Map. Paraclet Publishers- Yola. Agunwanba, J.C., etal, (2003): Least cost management of solid waste collection journal of solid waste technology and management, 29(3): Bobboi A (2006). Househould Solid Waste Generation and disposal in Mundang and GRA in Mubi, Adamawa State. B.Sc, research project, ADSU Mubi. EGSSAA (2009).Solid waste: generation, handling, treatment and disposal.inc. for international resources group, ltd.(irg) under USAID, african bureau environmental complaience and management support(encap) program:2. Savage LF(1998). Guidance for landfilling waste in economically developing countries, EPA 600/R , US Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH.H. Lin and J. Kao,( 1998): Enhanced spatial model for landfill sitting.