TITLE:
Solid Waste Mismanagement, Coastal Environmental Degradation, and Sectoral Risks to Fisheries and Tourism in Sierra Leone
AUTHORS:
Ranita Adama Sandi Koroma, Godwin Kofi Vondolia, Mustapha Sly Bayon
KEYWORDS:
Solid Waste Management, Coastal Pollution, Environmental Degradation, Fisheries Risk, Tourism Risk, DPSIR Framework
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.16 No.9,
September
10,
2026
ABSTRACT: Fisheries, tourism, food security, shoreline protection and local livelihoods are all based on coastal and marine ecosystems in Sierra Leone, but these are increasingly threatened by poor solid waste management. This study investigates the impact of poor solid waste management on the environment of the coastal and marine environment and evaluates the risk to fisheries and tourism in selected coastal communities of Sierra Leone. The study was conducted using a convergent mixed-method design and a comparative case study approach in three contrasting coastal settings; the urban Freetown Peninsula, the rural Sherbro Island and the remote Turtle Islands. Field observations, community surveys, key informant interviews, environmental indicators, and policy document analysis were used to triangulate quantitative data (2010-2023). We used the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework to link socioeconomic drivers and waste management pressures to environmental conditions, sectoral impacts and governance responses. The results indicate a significant environmental challenge of waste, with a high environmental degradation index (mean = 0.75), low waste-management efficiency (mean = 0.24), high dominance of plastic waste (mean = 63.22%) and a large policy implementation gap (mean = 34.62/100). The regression analysis shows that socioeconomic pressure and plastic-dominated waste streams are positively associated with environmental degradation while enhanced waste management efficiency is negatively associated with degradation. Waste management and policy enforcement showed a negative and significant interaction term (β = −0.005, p