Solid Waste Management Challenges and Its Impacts on People’s Livelihood, Case of Kinyinya in Kigali City

The main intention of this study was to assess the solid waste management challenges and their impacts on people’s livelihood. Specifically, the study evaluated the methods and techniques used for waste collection, transportation and deposit to the landfill by households, and companies in Kinyinya sector. A survey was conducted to collect data from household, waste collection company and field. Household waste collection, transportation and deposit illustrated different challenges which impede the sustainable treatment and disposal of waste. Findings pointed out poor deposit of wastes, failure to pay waste collection fees, poor assessment before selecting waste landfill and poor working condition of companies in charge of waste collection, transportation as the major challenges toward waste management in Kinyinya. The findings illustrated that only 33.25% of households separated decay from undecayed waste and 66.75% couldn’t perform such activities. The findings indicated that members of some households suffered waste borne diseases from poor waste management. The linear correlation coefficient has shown 84.5% of correlation level between waste management challenges and people’s livelihood (r = 0.845) and this correlation is statistically significant. Thus, poor waste management is one among factors of poor people’s livelihood. The adaptation of segregation of waste at the household, strengthening company capacity and training workers at the landfill would save life and reduce exposure of both household and landfill workers.