Solid Waste Management – A Survey Based Analysis of Garhshankar Block, Hoshiarpur District, Punjab

Abstract

Increasing piles of waste in urban areas are a common problem in most developing countries. This paper attempts to present the linkages between poor solid waste management, exposure and associated adverse health outcomes. It is projected that by 2025 there will be about 4.3 billion urban residents who on average will generate 1.42 kg of waste per day (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata 2012). It is known that solid waste has effects on health and it is one of the major reasons why solid waste management is a top environmental and public health issue. However, while several causal linkages between exposure to waste and health outcomes for particular types of waste are well established, others remain unclear or not prioritized as public health issues especially in the rural and semi-rural areas. The challenge is the difficulty in ruling out other causes since other exposures in the environment potentially cause the same outcomes (Hu SW, Shy CM, 2001 and Vrijheid M, 2000). Additionally, some clinical outcomes such as cancers and other forms of degenerative disorders take long to manifest after exposure and loss to follow up of exposed individuals is a common challenge (Antwi SO, et al 2015 and Rushton L., 2003).

Human activities and their products are now recognized as the main cause of current global environmental and climatic changes that have direct effects on health and wellbeing (Whitmee S, et al., 2015). At a local municipal level, many human activities generate waste and these are major causes of environmental and health challenges including infectious diseases like malaria, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, dengue, respiratory complications and injuries among others (Cabral JP., 2010). The focal objective of this paper is to determine the awareness levels of the population on solid waste generation and its management as also assess their perceptions of its impact on health. How they envision the waste management problematicque and how concerned are they about this growing problem. Do they segregate their waste? Do they know the harm generated by plastic bags and what are they doing to mitigate the problem. The survey of Garhshankar block of Hoshiarpur district in Punjab was conducted to record their responses to some of the questions raised. Thesurvey was conducted online and through telephonic interviews. The findings of this survey can prove to be a pre-cursor to the launching of several small programs against this solid waste management issue.