Population Growth, Employment and Municipal Solid Waste Pollution in Mosul city

M. Al-Wattar, Obey; A. Mahmood, Sahar

	Population Growth, Employment and Municipal Solid Waste Pollution in Mosul city
Buhuth Mustaqbaliya Scientific Periodical Journal
Article 1, Volume 4, Issue 4, 2013, Pages 7-32
Authors
Obey M. Al-Wattar; Sahar A. Mahmood
Abstract
Abstract The phenomenal population growth in Mosul city, from 179,650 people in 1957 to nearly 1,400,000 in 2008, has been the driving force behind the corresponding growth in the labour force, whose size increased from around 41,320 people in 1957 to nearly 360,000 in 2008. The annual growth rate of the labour force, following population growth mainly, has been 3%. The associated uneven developmental efforts over the same period led to, among other things, an increase in the level of employment, from less than 41,320 employees in 1957 to over 275,000 in 2008, even though the city's average rate of unemployment over the period 2003-2008 passed 25% . As a result of the increased job opportunities, and the city's real Gross Domestic Product, the daily quantity of residential and commercial solid waste (R & CSW) generated in the city increased from less than 114 tons in 1957 to 289.8 tons in 1988, and over 725 tons in 2008. The central argument of this paper is that under conditions of rapid population growth and employment promotion policy the "bridge" between population-labour nexus, and the employment–R & CSW nexus is the rate of unemployment, with the latter being policy variable. The main conclusion to which this work leads is the following: Local Government and Mosul University should address the two problems of unemployment and solid waste pollution in general, and R & CSW in particular, simultaneously. Otherwise, any efforts aimed at alleviating the problem of unemployment prevailing in Mosul city today will exacerbate the problems of solid waste pollution in the city. The paper was concluded by two recommendations.

Statistics Article View: 142 PDF Download: 37