The Effects and Management of Municipal Solid Waste Generation and Disposal on Human Health in Serrekunda Market (Commercial Center), Kanifing Municipality, The Gambia

In the past decades, management of waste in the form of liquid, solid and gaseous state had been the problem a lot of West African countries have been facing as well as the whole world. Management of solid waste as a major problem encountered on waste management, this is because, the solid form of most waste, can change to liquid form, from liquid into gaseous state depending on the external temperature (heat) that acts on them. Wastes are regarded as an unwanted substance, unusable materials, which have no use. The increase in Population, development and technological advancement is what brought about urbanization, which has been increasing on a fast scale recently. Rapid population growth increase in the urban area has resulted in challenges in infrastructures and many land degradation. The fast level of factory growth as well as industrialization in this community increases the standards of living which have significantly accelerated greatly in a developing country like the Gambia. Recently, increase in municipality in quantity and composition, constitute an impact in the market that affects human health. This study was carried out to analyze the effects and management of municipal solid waste generation and disposal in public on human health in Serrekunda market, to ascertain the awareness level of Serrekunda residents living close to Serrekunda market municipality and to know if the residents at Serrekunda market municipality have protective mechanisms to protect themselves against external mechanical hazards, damage caused by improper waste arrangement and management. This research is based on a descriptive survey method design. The randomly arranged sampling technique is used to obtain a representative of 220 participants from a targeted population of males and females in Serrekunda, the research also employs simple percentage for the analysis. The highest agreed mean percentage recorded is 46.4% against disagreed mean of 3.6% on No health hazards associated with improper waste disposal that has ever affected anybody in Serrekunda, and I am not aware that improper waste disposal that causes neurological disorder had low agreed percentage response of 10% and disagree response percent of 40%. It was found that majority of the respondents are not aware of the health hazards of improper waste disposal management and its effects on climate change. The statistical package (t-test) is used to test the significant level. The t-test showed insignificant difference in the critical value, hence Null Hypothesis (HO) is accepted (P > 0.05).