KABALA COSTAIN RESIDENTS AND WASTE DISPOSAL: AWARENESS, ATTITUDE AND WASTE DISPOSAL PRACTICES
The management of waste is a major public health problem. Developing countries have waste disposal problems which appear to differ from those found in developed countries. The main objective of this study was to determine the awareness, attitudes and waste disposal practices of Kabala Costain residents, Kaduna North Local Government Area, Kaduna State, Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted in this study. Simple random sampling was used to select 396 respondents from ten clusters of households. A validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated and tested. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and correlation which were fixed at 0.05 significant level. The result revealed that the level of awareness, attitudes and waste disposal practices of the respondents had a mean score of 9.11, 23.74, and 22.35 respectively. Almost all the respondents were aware that proper waste disposal would result in a clean environment, about 65.6% respondents strongly disagreed that attitudes had influence on the environment, and 27.7% agreed that attitudes influenced their environment. About 62.4% respondents disposed waste at any open space while 31.6% disposed their waste at the prescribed dumpsite. The study concluded that the level of awareness did not influence proper waste disposal practices but attitudinal disposition had an influence on waste disposal practices. It was therefore recommended that waste management agencies should motivate the residents to properly dispose of their waste by providing receptacles near the households and also ensure prompt waste collection services.
Attitude, Awareness, Environment, Practices Waste disposal