**2.2 Lack of proper town planning practice**

 Planning simply means to clarify one's objective and to determine actions that should be taken by whom, when, by what methods and at what costs in other to achieve the desired goal. It is also the evaluation of alternative choice, strategy, solution, plan, implementation and review. Planning is functional when it develops an appropriate course of action for decision makers. The purpose of planning is to provide for the "urban citizen" an environment suitable for human habitation. This is because the price to pay for lack of planning is huge and can affect the waste management process [10]. Lack of municipal planning can lead to the proliferation of slums, congestion, noise, waste, air and water pollution, overcrowding, inadequate school, unemployment, inadequate municipal services (e.g., waste disposal sites and recycling facilities), disease proliferation, crime, ugliness and a host of other societal ills.

Adequate physical planning aims to control physical development of communities thus, avoiding the major social and economic cost of non-planning such as inadequate waste management system leading to unhygienic conditions and flooding in cities, which erodes major road network. Furthermore, physical planning bears a distinct relationship to many other governmental functions [10, 11].

*Municipal Solid Waste Disposal in Mangrove Forest: Environmental Implication… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83809* 

For instance, the decision about the patterns and locations of waste processing facility will involve not only the local planning agency, but also federal and state ministry of environment, environmental protection agency, public works and city engineers. This is because the location of a waste facility will have ripple effect on other facilities in the city, for example it will have an impact on the location of other land uses, and will affect the land use policies of communities throughout a given metropolis [12, 13]. Decision about the proper location of industry can have a major impact on employment and income levels, and thus the buying power and waste generation capacity. All of these interrelationships imply a need for some coordination amongst different municipal activities. Planning theory postulates standard for the location and space requirement of different land uses such as waste facility, housing, esthetics, recreation, industry, etc. on "design concept" [14]. There is a belief that different land uses should be kept separate, and density low. It is believed that an improvement in the physical will lead to an improvement in all the social and economic problems besetting urban communities.

A classic example of the nature of planning is the "zoning ordinance", which is a municipal law that divides the municipal area into district, within the district standards and restrictions are established for the use of land. For instance areas are designated as residential, industrial, recreation, and municipal waste collection facility (MWCF).

Waste generation can also be affected by pattern of street layouts. This is under the purview of 'sub-division regulation", which is a municipal law that controls the development of new residential area. This involves the width and pattern of streets, size of drainage facilities, sewage and water system and waste disposal site. Building code can also be used to manage waste generation and disposal system. It is an implementation device of planning. The enforcement of code is providing for the municipal standards for the structures and facilities for building as part of the municipal. The purpose of code enforcement is to safeguard health. Modern method of city planning is the use of Geographical Information System (GIS) to identify locations for establishing waste disposal facilities that will not affect esthetics and property value [15].

#### **2.3 Lack of municipal waste recycling and treatment facilities**

 Central waste treatment and recycling facility is important in managing waste coming from different parts of the city [16]. The problem is that in the Niger Delta this facility is non-existent, thus waste collected from several locations are usually disposed off on open virgin land, crushed with bulldozers and mixed with soil to form compost (**Figure 1**). The waste is picked up by the side of the road and driven to such locations. Since the waste generation data is not available it becomes a problem for those evacuating the waste to know the carrying capacity of the trucks and the number of trips to go. This leads to the overloading of the pay load resulting in the waste falling off on the road when the waste is being driven to the crushing facility. In addition, after collection some waste still remain behind on the road for days because the truck had been filled beyond capacity. This type of waste management practice is open disposal, which is ancient and had been phased out in many parts of the world. This method is unhygienic because it is often situated around human habitation. It introduces pest and diseases through rodents and flies. The smell coming from such location is nauseating. This reduces the esthetic values of the city. The idea of establishing recycling facilities across the Niger Delta had been in the drawing board for decades without being implemented, which is as a result of bureaucratic bottlenecks in government. Currently it is only private investors that are making attempts to establish such facilities. Plastic products are

the major recycled waste product in the region [17] (**Figure 2d**). This is because of the millions of plastic materials that are evacuated from the surrounding drainages and water bodies (**Figure 2b, c**). The reason for high plastic waste retrieval from the environment is because of the monetary reward of \$0.3 offered for I kg of plastic waste recovered. In fact, the most priced plastic materials in the region are those that are made up of high density polyethylene (HDPE), which is used in the production of plastics, bottles, corrosion-resistant piping, geo-membranes and plastic lumber, etc. The retrieved materials are compressed and exported out of the country to generate foreign exchange.
