IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND MANAGEMENT RESEARCH (IJSSMR )

E-ISSN 2545-5303
P-ISSN 2695-2203
VOL. 3 NO. 6 2017

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Cultural Beliefs on Waste and the need for Integration into Present Domestic Waste Management: Evidence from Selected Communities in Rivers State, Nigeria

Ogheneriere Ibodje Roberts & Chukwunenye I. Okereke

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Abstract

In recent years, there has been a campaign for the integration of culture into development programmes particularly environmental management programmes for its success and sustainability. Culture is held, maintains a balance between humans, society and the physical environment and provides the context within which human activities occur. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine, from three communities, the cultural beliefs and practices on waste so as to identify aspects that underscore present domestic waste management (DWM) practices as well as those that can be integrated into present intervention methods to alleviate the problems of DWM in Nigeria. Hence, questionnaires, oral interviews and focus group discussion were employed for data collection, while descriptive statistics, bar charts and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used to analyse the quantitative data and the matrix table to present the qualitative data. Findings showed that while their cultural beliefs and practices which curtailed indiscriminate practices are no longer shared by majority of the residents, some aspects colour present methods of DWM. Also, while there has been no deliberate inclusion of their cultural practices into DWM interventions, consultation visible to relatively more percentage of residents at one of the communities reflected in a relatively less indiscriminate DWM practice. As a result, the study concluded that, though disappearing, the cultural beliefs and practices on waste should not be ignored as it still influences present DWM methods and practices and has aspects that if integrated could contribute to alleviating problems of indiscriminate disposal of waste.

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