TITLE:
Assessment of the Aesthetic Quality in a Rural Community in Cameroon: Using Litter Survey Technique
AUTHORS:
Veronica Ebot Manga, Eric Ndumbe Esongami
KEYWORDS:
Disposal, Litter Item, Litter Survey, Plastics, Solid Waste, and Solid Waste Management
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.12 No.5,
May
31,
2025
ABSTRACT: The issue of poor waste management in rural communities is still a challenge and whose practices are still elementary in developing countries. This paper evaluates and assesses the solid waste management in rural communities using litter survey technique, Muyuka, Cameroon. The objectives were; to assess visible litter along the roadway and main road in Muyuka town, to determine the litter rate within the study area, and to estimate the most litter item and lastly to evaluate the effects of the most littered item on the environment. Litter survey check listing was developed and done with site reconnaissance survey and with a GPS. Purposive data collections along four roadways, four main roads and from seven different grids were also collected and analyzed using SPSS. Results show that roadways were twice heavily littered (22,294) than main road (10,204) because of lack of local storage facilities, poor follow up, and sensitization campaign. Also 08.46 litter items/metre were visible at a detectability function of 85% (i.e. items greater than 1 m2 in surface area) with atleast 04.94 plastics litter/metre of which 03.50 plastics littered was LDPE plastic type coupling with the low decay rate of plastics (λ = 0.0014) on the environment, due to resins. Total visible litter in Grid 1 and 7 were 1544 and 8394 respectively. Conclusively, the level of SWM was too poor within the town. Along roads, roadway is twice heavily littered whereas in grids, Grid 1 is the cleanest. As recommendation this work should serve as a standard baseline litter survey manual for further research assessment in rural council with single used plastics discouraged with sanctions.