Wale Aboyade's thesis - lumes

Akinwale Aboyade, LUMES Thesis, 2003/2004
collection services. Such increase is of course limited by the municipality’s budget which in itself is a
direct function of the economic prosperity of the state. The poor economic status coupled with the low
quality management enjoyed in public services ensures that such increased effort at collection services
is hardly sustained. Usually however the limited successes of such efforts at least in reducing the
amount of littered waste soon causes public pressure to relax. Also the ever increasing quantities of
waste coupled with lack of sustained political will and increasing administrative inefficiencies ensures
that the collection rates soon drops and uncleared waste again begins to mount. Interestingly, according
to officials in LAWMA, this cycle (represented by the balancing loop in the CLD above) very often
coincides with the election or appointment of new leaders in the state. This is because in a bid to
impress its constituents, the new administration (usually military controlled) pumps money towards
reducing the amount of littered waste, only to relax after a while for the same reasons aforementioned.
With the recent change to democratic office in 1999, the quality of public administration, has began to
improve somewhat (World Bank, 2004b), and government is more responsive to the needs of its
electorate, within limits of its financial capabilities naturally. There has since been a decidedly
improved collection system (described in chapter 3) which has seen a sustained increase in collection
rates. There has also been increased attention to proper disposal systems in response to the
environmental problems arising form bad disposal systems such as leachate pollution, odor, and smoke
from landfill fires caused by the methane emissions mixing with oxygen. The increased spending has
led to marked efforts in the improvement of the state of current disposal sites. All three disposal sites in
the state are undergoing major renovation (see pictures in Appendix), such as repartitioning of
dumpsites into cells, groundwater monitoring and some degree of leachate management. There are also
plans for daily sand cover of waste to reduce the occurrence of fires and the prevalence of disease
vectors.
However, such improvements, as they are currently being planned and implemented, conspicuously
exclude the capture of landfill gas. A situation which will inadvertently favors CH 4 emissions as
depicted in the CLD. Improvements in landfill operations such as waste compaction, prevention of
landfill fires and so on creates better anaerobic conditions for natural biomethanation. Also
improvements in collection efficiency will ensure a constant flow of waste resource.
4.1.2 Emission module parameters
The CLD in the last section formed the framework for the design of emission calculation modules in
STELLA. A simplified picture of the
module structure is shown in Figure 4.3.
The figure shows methane emissions as
being influenced principally by two main
factors: amount of annual MSW inflow
into landfills and a composite variable
termed 'emission factor'. The later
encapsulates all the factors which directly
affect methane emissions from waste
deposited in SDWS depicted in the
CLD above (figure 4.2). The
waste inflow
total waste
Methane Emissions
Figure 4.3 Representation of STELLA module for calculating
CH4 emissions (Own construct)
emission factors
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