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COST AND BENEFIT OF ESTABLISHING A LANDFILL IN LUSAKA |
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by Bwalya Bwalya | 27-07-2018 01:11
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Cost benefit analysis can be explained as a procedure for estimating all costs involved and possible profits to be derived from a business opportunity or proposal. It takes into account both quantitative and qualitative factors for analysis of the value for money for a particular project or investment opportunity. Benefits to costs ratio and other indicators are used to conduct such analyses.
Creating a landfill is a developmental project that the government can put in place to reduce the amount of waste that is generated in Lusaka. Currently Lusaka province has only one landfill based in Chunga which accomodates for a population of approximately one million seven hundred and forty three (1. 743) people from the last census held in 2010 of which has now increased (Central Statistical Office, 2012). Waste generation is on the rise and the waya to tackle with the rapid growth in accumulating wasye is minimal. Waste management has been the center od discussion for most environmentalists and also local governing odies. There are several ways of handling waste but the most conventional method of waste management is a landfill. A landfill basically refers to a dumping up of waste in some unused tract of land and letting them decay on their own. The primary advantage of a landfill is that the trash does not pile up around people and does nor create worse health problems as ir rots and attracts pests which can carry disease. A well engineered landfill can greatly reduce potential effects on the environment. It is better to have a landfill than just throwing the trash in a pile somewhere which is done in many places. Most of the times, waste which is generated has to be transported to some place in order to ensure waste does not harm humans. Having a landfill that is closw to the locality of any region can thous reduce cost od exporting the waste. The local government can develop ideal techniques to utilize the energy given out by the waste. Wastes in landfills give out gases like methane and carbon dioxide when they get decomposed automatically. This gas can then be used by landfill planre to generate energy. The gases evolved by the landfills can be trapped in by rge machinery of the power generation plants, wherein the gas can be used to move the turbines which are coupled to the generators and further connected to the transformers. This happens to be a good way to utilize waste. Despite the positives of landfills, the safety provided by landfills is wuite an issue to discuss. While most of the other waste control techniques are known for the large amount of dirt they create, landfills happen to be the safest ones. Incinerators for example ,can generate heavy toxins as some of the wadtw do contain toxic materials. This is not at all a good option when it comes to safety. In addition, rain water can often fall on the landfills. The landfills contain waste which has harmful toxins. When these toxins mix up with water, they tend to flow in a fluidic manner which can be a very serious problem to deal with. This combination is commonly known as a leachate. Leachate can seep into the top layer of the soil and in fact even percolate down to affect groundwater and other water bodies and hence harm the ecosystem in many ways. Since the landfills are open in nature, they are always posing a threat of polluting the environment. The trucks which carry the waste to the land fill site often generate serious traffic on their way to the site of disposal. This is the reason why people living near by often register complaints. The trucks are generally old and often it is seen that they drop off alittle bit of waste here and there when moving and cause alot of noise pollution. The value attached to a landfill cannot be quantified in terms of mlney but there is need to come up with the value of impacts in terms of actions of marginal social benefits. This means there is need to gauge how people in Lusaka will be without a new landfill. Once people are aware of the effects that poor waste management has on health and that of the environment at large, they tend to value the existence of landfills where the wasted generated can be properly managed.
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5 Comments
thank you for taking time to read and comment
Posted 04-08-2018 06:30
Hello Bwalya, just like Gyeongrin mentor said, we have to take non financial profits into account too, so we can approximately calculate the expected effect that we would have as a result.
Waste management itself seems easy and looks like it does not need complex procedure, but there are way too many types of waste in modern society : waste management companies are struggling to discern them in their reprocessing section.
Posted 30-07-2018 14:45
thank you
Posted 30-07-2018 07:43
Hello Bwalya
When making a decision there should be a comparison done between the pre and post status of the decision. By doing so we could get the net value of the project, meaning that if the latter is smaller the project is right to be started. And also in the process of measuring the value of the project, a cost-benefit analysis should include non financial profits into the profit sector so that it could approximate the qualitative impact too.
Thanks for the report!
Posted 29-07-2018 11:13
Hey Bwalya!
Waste management can place a huge toll on government and the citizens if not carried through properly. Landfill have become a saving grace for society and to some extent the environment, but as many years have passed by. It has been proven that Landfills have caused more harm than good.
For instance as you said, that the downfall of landfills comes from the release of toxic gases into the atmosphere when waste is burnt...this as a result releases carbon monoxide, CO2, NO, NO2, ect just to name a few. its even worse with ground water because once the lining (that makes up the foundation of the landfill) cracks open and it then pracipitates, all the concentrated toxins will infiltrate into the ground and eventually contaminate groundwater.
I really hope that the government set out a mass project to build atleast 1 more landfill to alleviate the stress that the landfill in Chunga is facing. In an area which is close enough for disposal trucks to transport the water from the city to the landfill cost effectively and far enough from the people so that they do not get harmed by the waste or the odour that comes with rotting waste.
Lovely report Bwalya, I loved it!
Posted 27-07-2018 22:28