Abstract

Municipal solid wastes (MSWs) stream undergoes diverse transformation, which could be beneficial or detrimental to public health and the environment as a whole. For instance, microbes can act on decomposing waste by either releasing pathogenic bioaerosols. On the other hand, it can be used to produce power through gasification. The microbial assessment of MSWs was investigated in soil samples from 6 dumpsites in dry and wet seasons respectively. Results for total heterotrophic bacteria was 9.30±0.30 - 20.53±3.06 X 106 cfu/g for dry season, and 5.43±0.31 - 13.41±0.26 X 106 cfu/g for wet season. Total fungi 16.63±0.47 - 28.56±0.25 and 10.51±0.20 - 20.70±0.20 X 104 cfu/g respectively. Other group of microbes were; enterobacteriaceae (14.27±0.58 - 27.90±1.40 and 10.30±0.20 – 21.40±0.30 X 104 cfu/g), hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria (5.50±0.40 - 24.46±1.21 and 0.00±0.00 – 19.26±0.15 X 102 cfu/g) and hydrocarbon utilizing fungi (3.47±0.61 - 18.53±1.17 and 0.00±0.00 – 8.73±0.24 X 104 cfu/g). Microbial densities in dry season was relatively higher compared to wet season as opposed to fungi. Furthermore, predominant microbial diversity with highest relative occurrence in both seasons includes; Bacillus spp. E. coli Pseudomonas spp and Staphylococcus spp for bacteria, while fungi includes Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., Rhizopus spp., and Saccharomyces spp. Also, fungi species were higher in wet season than dry season as opposed to bacteria isolates. Based on these finding, we therefore suggest that household waste dumping should be discouraged and more effort should be made to utilize beneficial microbes as resources, while adherence to aseptic measures should be ensured while handling MSW.



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