Landfills: Problems, solutions and decision-making of waste disposal in Harare (Zimbabwe)

Selection of a suitable site for constructing a new landfill is one of the most challenging issues for town planners in developing countries. A study was conducted to locate the most suitable site for constructing a sanitary landfill in the city of Harare using Geospatial techniques and Multi-Criteria Evaluation. To identify appropriate landfill sites, nine input map layers including proximity to settlements/built up area, proximity to protected areas, proximity to airports, proximity to road and railway networks, surface water, slope, elevation and soil type were used for mapping, analysis and evaluation. Each criterion was identified and weighted using Analytic Hierarchy Process. A final map was generated which identified potential areas for the location of a landfill site. Results revealed that 1.31% of the total area of Harare was identified as mostly suitable, 24.73% as moderately suitable to suitable and 76.96% as unsuitable to construct a sanitary landfill. Six sites were identified as most suitable sites for a landfill. These selected sites require further geotechnical and hydrogeological analyses to identify the final site in the city to construct a sanitary landfill.