Application of Factor Analysis in the Assessment of Solid Waste Management in Bolgatanga Municipality of Ghana

The issue of waste management has become a daunting challenge for many countries particularly for developing countries. The adverse effects of waste on human lives and the environment have reached scary levels that call for a thorough assessment of waste management systems across the globe and in particular developing countries. In Bolgatanga municipality of the Upper East Region of Ghana, the situation of waste disposal is appalling exposing residents to all kinds of health related risk. City authorities who have the responsibility of ensuring that the environment is clean and safe for habitation are confronted with the serious burden of managing waste disposal in the municipality. This study therefore sought to examine a set of 18 variables relevant to the topic under investigation and how they relate to influence solid waste management in the municipality from the perspective of residents of the Bolgatanga municipality through the application of Factor Analysis. The object of this approach is to identify a set of indicator variables that amalgamate to form common factors. The opinions of 400 subjects on Solid Waste Management in the municipality were successfully collected through the administration of questionnaires and analyzed. A preliminary analysis of the data showed that the correlation matrix was not an identity matrix and a KMO value of 0.797 described as “middling” was obtained. These provided the necessary and sufficient grounds for the application of Factor Analysis to the data. Further analysis of the data revealed five latent factors which are Institutional Dormancy, Financial Constraint, Infrastructural Lapses, Accessibility and Behavioral Canker as factors that need to be addressed in order to improve the status of Solid Waste Management in Bolgatanga municipality.