Factors influencing the practice of household waste management among Myanmar migrants in Muang district, Ranong province, Thailand

Abstract

This study is cross sectional study and was collected in Muang District, Ranong Province in March, 2010. Four hundred Myanmar migrants of age ranged 18- 65 years asked by using structured questionnaire. The objective of the study are 1) To assess the level of knowledge and attitude towards household waste management and 2) To identify the factors influencing practice of household waste management among Myanmar migrants in the studied area. Out of the respondents, 92.5% were female, 42.8% were Dawe, 92.5% were Buddhist, 74.8% were married and 38.8% were the age group 26 to 35 years. Among the respondents, half of the percentage 51.8% attended primary school, 55.2% were housewives, 93% were registered migrants, 41.8% were residing in Thailand for 3 to 6 years, 39.2% were staying in recent household for 1 to 3 years, monthly family income ranged 2500-5000 Baht is 35% and nearly half of the respondents 49% can communicate basically in Thai language. Nearly half of the respondents 49.8% have high level of knowledge and 61.2% of the respondents have moderate attitude level. Only 16.5% had good practice towards household waste management. In terms of accessibility, 92.5% of the respondents got the information about household waste management from the sources of Thai government and INGOs. Around 90% had public trash bins near their house, 95.8% had household collecting system in their community and 98.2% had scrap buyers in their community. The study reported that there were many factors influencing the practice of household waste management among Myanmar migrants. Among predisposing factors, there are significant differences between age, sex, occupation, duration of staying in recent household, migrant status, monthly family income, knowledge and attitude (P-value = 0.001), educational level (P-value = 0.024), family size (P-value = 0.016) and practice towards household waste management. Regarding to the enabling factors, there is significant difference between availability of household waste information (P-value = 0.001) and practice towards household waste management. Likewise, there is significant difference between availability of scrap buyers (P-value = 0.038) and practice towards household waste management for reinforcing factors. The health education program targeting to age, sex and occupation including community participation should be emphasized in order to improve practice towards household waste management.