ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD THROUGH SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN DHAKA CITY

Abstract

Solid waste management (SWM) has become an enormous burden for the governments of
developing countries. SWM is a partiularly crucial problem in theDhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The
Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is the only formal organisation responsible for waste management. It estimates
that up to 2% of the population of developing countries survive through informal waste-recovery activities. Thus,
this study is aimed to assess the sustainable livelihood through SWM among the waste workers in Dhaka. This
study collects primary data through a questionnaire survey on 436 poor waste workers living in the Dhaka city of
Bangladesh. The samples are selected from the landfill, commercial and residential area based on the stratified
random sampling technique. This study shows that the analysis of structural equation modelling achieves the
required level of validity, reliability and fitness where the values of Cronbach’s alpha (œ) > 0.7; Construct
Reliability (CR) > 0.6 ; Average Variance Extracted (AVE) > 0.5 ; Chisquare, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and
Tucker –Lewis Index (TFI) > 0.90; Root Mean Square of Error Approximation (RMSEA) < 0.08 and chi Square
/Degree of Freedom (Chisq/df) < 5 . The three latent exogenous constructs namely source separation, health
hazards, and sustainable livelihood are significant variables to achieve sustainable livelihood vis-à-vis poverty
reduction. Using the econometric model, the study focused on the health awareness, welfare, income generation,
employment opportunities of waste workers .