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Poor environmental sanitation affects environmental quality and health. Ghana is a developing country whose sanitation profile has been one of the lowest in the world in recent years. This has prompted various views regarding effective approaches for improving sanitation in Ghana for better environmental quality and health. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of National Sanitation Day (NSD) as a model for improving environmental sanitation in the Edina Traditional Area (ETA), Ghana.

The study used key informant interviews and focus group discussions to collect qualitative data from purposively selected participants from predominantly fishing and farming communities in the ETA, Ghana. Data were analysed thematically and presented using interpretive narratives and most significant stories.

Results showed a high level of community awareness of the model but low participation in the intervention, culminating in the model’s ineffectiveness to make any meaningful impact on improved sanitation in the study area. Key factors responsible for the model’s ineffectiveness include apathy, inadequate logistics, politics and attitude.

Government should engage more effectively with the municipal assembly, private sanitation companies and community level authorities to address the political, logistical, attitudinal and institutional challenges associated with the model to ensure effective participation in the NSD for better sanitation outcomes, leading to improved environmental quality and health for sustainable development.

This is one of the few studies that have evaluated the effectiveness of the NSD in Ghana since the model was introduced in the country in 2014. The outcome of the study could inform sanitation management policy, practice and research in Ghana as well as other developing countries that may adopt or adapt Ghana’s model.

The purpose of this paper is to use relevant models and theories to conceptualize the prospects and challenges associated with private sector involvement in the provision of sanitation and environmental services in urban settlements of developing African economies.

The study adopts the public choice theory and principal-agent model in its conceptualization and analysis. Retrospective literature analysis within the qualitative research approach has been employed for the study. It draws extensively on existing classical theoretical and current empirical literature on privatization of urban sanitation services in developing countries.

The study observes that privatization is a necessary tool for enhancing quality and responsive sanitation service delivery but there must be some mechanisms to prevent any latent challenges. The study also observes that the same problems associated with the public sector could transcend into the private sector if key measures are not taken into consideration.

The process of privatizing or contracting out must ensure competition, enough communication to all stakeholders as well as involving expertise in the bidding process. The process also requires strict monitoring and supervision; these call for an appropriate legal framework to regulate privatization. The paper reminds urban administrators and policy makers to be circumspect in the privatization process. If the process of privatization is carried out effectively, urban sanitation services will be provided effectively and efficiently.

The paper adapts the public choice and principal-agent model to assess privatization processes in developing African countries. This study will be of importance to urban administrators, public officials and policy makers in general.

The purpose of this research is to identify and examine the main factors which have explained the sanitation companies' performance and to expand the information on basic sanitation as a way of subsidizing the planners of this important component in the population's quality of life.

The methodological approach used consisted of the selection of a set of 36 indicators from the 26 sanitation companies regarding the year 2003, divided into two groups, with the intent of avoiding spurious correlations. The groups were separated, taking into account their economic, financial and operational features. Subsequently, the indicators were submitted to the factorial analysis, by using the method of the main components extraction.

Based on variables examined it was possible to identify the Operational Management factors: Monitoring and control; Water demand management; Sewage coverage; Urban structure; Environmental protection; Disposition and use of the urban space; Economic and financial capacity; Tariff policies; Collection efficiency; and Liabilities quality as the most representatives ones and those which can better explain the Sanitation Companies' performance.

The results achieved from the factorial analysis intend to be a contribution to the formulation of management actions for the sanitation companies. They may also be used in a city or in a set of cities as a subsidy to the elaboration of various policies.

This article is an innovation as far as it applies the multivariate analysis for the construction of factors which explain the sanitation companies' performance.

The purpose of this paper is to present the latrine ownership ladder as a conceptual policy framework to enhance sanitation uptake in low-income peri-urban areas.

The paper draws from literature and a case study in a Ghanaian peri-urban community to highlight the challenges that undermine sanitation uptake in low-income peri-urban areas and the prospects of various levels of facility sharing as conceived in the latrine ownership ladder approach.

The authors argue that the infrastructural and other socio-economic challenges of low-income peri-urban areas prevent some households from acquiring their own latrines. For such households, a more responsive approach to latrine promotion and prevention of open defecation would be the recognition of shared ownership regimes such as co-tenant shared, neighbourhood shared and community shared, in addition to the promotion of household latrines. The paper identifies provision of special concessions for peri-urban areas in policy formulation, education and technical support to households, regulation and enforcement of sanitation by-laws among complimentary policy interventions to make the latrine ownership ladder approach more effective.

The paper provides an insight into the debate on redefining improved sanitation in the post-2015 era of the Millennium Development Goals and offers policy alternatives to policy makers in low-income countries seeking to accelerate the uptake of improved latrines among peri-urban and urban slum dwellers.

This chapter discusses the DRENURBS initiative in Belo Horizonte, a program for urban water drainage using natural ecosystems, using the sociotechnical framework. DRENURBS transformed the logic of canalizing water streams into a new, nature-based solution with significant positive impacts on biodiversity and social benefits. Following a theoretical debate on sustainability transition and innovation concepts, this chapter seeks to map the essential elements for building a successful institutional framework in the public sector for urban biodiversity improvements.

Waste classification plays an important role in reducing pollution, promoting waste recycling and resource utilization. This paper aims to explore the multiple reasons that affect the performance of waste classification governance.

Content analysis of the existing waste classification policies is conducted using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model. Based on this analysis, influencing factors are identified through the technology-organization-environment (TOE) research framework. The condition configurations and action paths that cause differences in governance performance are derived using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method (fsQCA).

The results show that there are spatial and temporal disparities in waste classification policies among different provinces/cities. In most situations, the implementation effect of policy combinations is better than that of a single type of policy, with mandatory policies playing a key role. Additionally, a single influencing factor cannot constitute the bottleneck of high governance performance. Policy topics coordinate with environmental and technical factors to influence governance performance. Finally, in light of China's actual governance situation, several targeted implications are proposed for the practical optimization of local government waste classification governance.

This paper presents a novel approach by integrating multiple heterogeneous data sources from both online and offline channels, adopting a public-government perspective and applying the fsQCA method to investigate the combined effects of technical, organizational and environmental factors on waste classification governance performance across 31 provinces and cities in China.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of rapid population growth due to uncontrolled and unplanned urbanization as it affects environmental degradation through solid waste generation in Port Harcourt Metropolis, which has brought about the problem of solid waste management to city authorities and state government

The study involved the administration of questionnaires to 76 different households with a total population of 393 persons giving an average size of 7 persons per household. Also, formal interviews with officials of relevant government departments as wells as private stakeholders in urban solid waste management were conducted. The questionnaires were designed to elicit information on the characteristics of the respondents and waste generation capacity as well as disposal methods. The data abstracted from the questionnaires were analysed using the multiple linear regression to test for the significant differences. The study period was between January 1999 to December 1999

A total of 207.3 tonnes of solid waste was generated giving per capita annual waste generation rate of 0.53 tonnes equivalent to a waste generator rate of 1.45 kg of waste per capita daily. Analysis of solid waste composition was by land use types. The study showed that cartoons accounted for 16.1 percent, while papers and food remnants had 14.4 percent and 26.6 percent of total waste generated respectively.

Assist city dwellers tackle the problem posed by urban waste through provision of adequate infrastructure and social services.

The paper suggests continuous enlightenment programmes as well as employment of good technical services in the management of solid waste rather than the use of political will to tackle the problems. This work is original, as no such analysis has been carried out in Port Harcourt metropolis. The paper has provided data and knowledge upon which further research can be carried out.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges for policymakers at both the international and national levels in the twenty-first century; there is no exception for the tourism industry, which is one of the most highly climate sensitive sectors. Tourism researchers have continued to explore the relationship between sustainable tourism and climate change to develop a range of effective strategies for policymakers. This paper aims to review published literature in the areas of sustainable tourism and climate change.

The review maps sustainable tourism and climate change domains between 1996 and 8 January 2016. The review encompasses 95 published documents obtained from the Scopus database on 8 January 2016. The search terms were “Sustainable Tourism” and “Climate Change” combined with Boolean Operator “AND” in the “Article Title, Abstract, Keywords”.

The outcomes of this study are: Identification of trends in research and the most influential papers on sustainable tourism associated with climate change research; evaluation of the contribution of authors, journals and institutions in this area; and guidance for policymakers to develop policies to mitigate the impact of tourist activities on climate change.

The study provides a basis for communication between academics and practitioners by revealing the research trends in sustainable tourism and climate change and by categorizing the contents of prior studies to provide guidance for future studies.

The originality of this paper is in determining possible research gaps and thereby providing guidance for future study. The study also makes a practical contribution by addressing the topics of interest to policymakers.

The purpose of this paper is to show impacts of household wastes handling on some physicochemical parameters of surface water, soil, sediments and borehole water samples in Port Harcourt. Waste generated from the households are indiscriminately dumped on roads, stream channels, bush lands and open spaces thus defacing the landscape of the city, flooding and spreading vector-borne diseases. As a result there is unsustainable and wasteful utilisation of resources which gives rise to pollution of the environment. The research determines the pollution profile of some dumpsites, surface water bodies that act as recipients of household waste from result of analysis of physicochemical parameters.

Major dumpsites in the city were selected for sampling. Three sampling stations at upstream, discharge point and downstream were selected for water and sediments. Water samples were collected in one-litre plastic containers, and then labelled and transported to laboratory for analysis. Sediment samples were collected at a depth of 5-10 m under water and preservation, handling and analysis were based on standard principles and procedures. Soil samples were dug with auger at both top (0-15 cm) and bottom (15-30 cm) in radial coordinates. The soil and sediment samples were first digested using the wet oxidation method before analysis with atomic absorption spectrophotometry.

The physicochemical analysis of surface water samples showed that conductivity, salinity, turbidity, sulphate, phosphate, magnesium, total hardness and lead exceeded the World Health Organization and Nigerian Industrial Standard limits for drinking water qualities at the sampled areas. The same parameters in addition to pH and manganese also exceeded the limits for sediment samples. The soil pH showed acidity at the sampling stations for both top and bottom depths. Conductivity, sulphate, iron, manganese, phosphate and lead also exceeded the FMEnv Guidelines and standards for soil quality. The continuous discharge of household wastes on water and soil resulted in elevated levels of some measured parameters.

The research was limited by funds. The cost of sampling and analysis was enormous and limited the study to parameters that available funds could carry. This factor also stretched the period of study. The non-availability of sponsorship made it difficult to extend the research to soil particle size distribution and the underground water movement of the study areas. Another limitation was logistics as the study covered vast areas of the metropolis demanding steady means of mobility that was not available. Epileptic supply of power delayed the timely delivery of result of analysis.

The results of the analysed physicochemical parameters of water, sediments, soil and borehole water samples indicated spatial variations in their values at the study area, with higher values at the discharge points and downstream than the upstream, while for the borehole water analysis, the effect was more pronounced at stations with appreciable quantity of degradable household wastes. The levels of some physicochemical variables exceeded standard limits as a result of continuous discharge of household wastes .The implication is that household waste handling influenced the physicochemical variables negatively and constant monitoring serves as a useful tool of abatement.

This work is original and has not been published before in any book or journal article locally or internationally. The research related waste handling lifestyles with concentrations of measurable parameters, which is an additional work to what other authors have done. The value is that data generated will be a reference material to other researchers, city planners, government agencies and institutions that are involved with environmental management. Furthermore it has added a new dimension to the discipline of waste management in terms of scope and contribution to knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the management of solid waste during monthly environmental sanitation exercise in different residential areas of Ibadan municipality, Nigeria. The study also examined how the government performed its responsibility during the exercise. This is expected to assist in improving the conduct of sanitation exercise in one of Africa’s populous indigenous settlement, Ibadan.

Collection of data for the study was through participant observation, administration of questionnaire, and interview. As a way of participating and observing, the authors were involved in the conduct of the exercise in the different residential areas of Ibadan municipality. Questionnaire was administered on respondents drawn from one of every ten buildings (10 percent) in the study area using systematic sampling technique. A respondent (preferably a household head) was surveyed from a floor of selected residential building. A total of 367 copies of questionnaire were completed and returned for analysis. Information provided in the questionnaire was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Interview was conducted to collect information from the head of environmental sanitation unit in each of the five local government areas of Ibadan municipality.

The most widely used medium of storing solid waste was the polythene bag, which accounted for 22.8 percent of all the storage receptacles and was employed by 50.4 percent of the residents. Similarly, residents employed a combination of waste disposal methods which included burning, and dumping in the drains, river banks and on vacant plots. Methods of solid waste storage and disposal varied across the different residential areas of Ibadan municipality. It was established that despite the huge amount of money expended on the collection of solid waste during the exercise, only government-owned vans constituted less environmental health hazard.

It would assist in evaluating the success and failure of the monthly environmental sanitation exercise. It would also reveal to policy makers’ direction to which policy initiative should focus. Findings of the study could serve as a guide for the management of solid waste from similar exercises in countries of the developing world with similar socio-economic and environmental sanitation practices.

Presented in this paper are results of an investigation into solid waste management during monthly environmental sanitation exercise in Ibadan municipality, Nigeria. The study was an attempt at examining the different storage and disposal methods employed by households in the management of solid waste during the exercise. It also revealed what is committed financially into the collection and transportation of solid waste for final disposal during the exercise by government.