International Journal of Sub-Saharan African Research (IJSSAR)

Background: Globally, electrical and electronics equipment known as e-waste has become a major issue of environmental degeneration with its antecedent hazardous health implications such as air pollution, water pollution, toxic emissions. This has created unsafe situation for human race because when toxic emissions mixed with virgin soil and air, it causes harmful effects to the entire biota either directly or indirectly.
Objectives: To investigate knowledge of risk factors of poor electrical and electronics waste management among residents of Onitsha and Nnewi towns of Anambra state, Nigeria.
Method: The study design will be mixed method whereby questionnaire will be used to obtain quantitative data while in-depth interview will be used to collect primary data on qualitative. Secondary data shall be source from textbooks, relevant journals, relevant policy document, media reportage on environmental health/hazards, magazine publications such as ‘health watch’, and Internet etc. The study raises a sample of 413 people from the determine population to ascertain the impact of e-waste on their health and the emanating data analyzed with statistical method.
Results: The result shows that e-waste is responsible for 31% emerging health problems, the study also provided that e-waste business engaged in by scavengers and others is lucrative while the environmental laws or policy seems to promote manual recycling of e-waste in Anambra state.
Conclusion: Nevertheless, it is a notable factor that electronic waste business in Anambra state is propelled by socio-economic factors coupled with unemployment issues. Thus, government should establish firmly the legal and institutional frameworks on waste management to ameliorate the situation which has degenerated to several health problems and environmental hazards.
Unique Contribution: E-waste causes feotal deformities among women scavengers and informal recyclers. Thus, only firm adherence to/enforcement of the legal and institutional frameworks of the waste management act can ameliorate the situation in Anambra state since it has degenerated to several health problems and environmental hazards.
Key Recommendations: the study recommended among others that effective management of e-waste by the stakeholders involved in e-waste business is necessary by the use of adequate crushing machines as against manual recycling and separation which exposed people to high emission and the study recommend that each senatorial zone should have legally approved e-waste dump site to reduce the high effect of environmental damages occasioned by electronic waste in Anambra state of Nigeria.