Risk Assessment of The Kingtom And Granville Brook Dumpsites In Freetown, Sierra Leone
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Abstract
The Kingtom and Granville Brook dumpsites are the only two official and final waste disposal sites in Freetown. Waste management practices in both sites could be described as crude, uncontrolled and unacceptable according to modern method of handling of waste resulting in poor environmental hygiene with its associated health consequences in and around the site. Consequently, there is increasing cry of residents for both sites to be closed and relocated to a new engineered landfill site outside the capital Freetown. However, for such a decision to be made, officials must be well informed with facts and data that will guide them in decision making. As such, assessing the relative health and environment hazards posed by the Kingtom and Granville dumpsites could help prioritize, plan and initiate their rehabilitation or relocation. In light of this, this study presents an Integrated Risk Based Approach (IRBA) for developing a decision making tool for dumpsite rehabilitation or relocation and propose proper management for solid waste. The risk index (RI) was computed from the
summation of the product of the sensitivity of the variables studied and their respective weights of their attributes. Results of hazard potential for both the Kingtom and Granville Brook dumpsites scored a RI of 585.0 and 583.5 respectively. The RI scores fell within the range of moderate hazard. Moderate hazard recommends immediate rehabilitation of the dumpsite into sustainable landfill.
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