438 Int. J. Environment and Waste Management, Vol. 26, No. 4, 2020 Copyright © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. A baseline scenario of municipal solid waste management Patrick Aaniamenga Bowan* Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, Wa Polytechnic, P.O. Box 553, Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana Email: P.A.BOWAN@wapoly.edu.gh *Corresponding author Sam Kayaga and Julie Fisher Water Engineering Development Centre (WEDC), School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, LE11 3TU, Liecs, UK Email: s.m.kayaga@lboro.ac.uk Email: j.fisher1@lboro.ac.uk Abstract: The baseline scenarios of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) activities that will expose the specific challenges militating against sustainable waste management in many developing countries are not properly documented or not understood. This paper established a baseline scenario of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in Ghana, through material flow analysis and understanding of MSW handling practices, using the Wa Municipality as a case study. The study was theoretically based on empirical observation and an exploratory design. The findings showed that sustainable waste management has remained elusive because MSWM in the case study area and Ghana in general, consist of some waste collection, transportation and open dumping, where the entire amount of waste is open dumped without pre- treatment. The sorting of waste at the generation sources, and the provision of adequate MSWM infrastructure, through an integrated solid waste management system can ensure sustainable waste management in the country. Keywords: baseline scenario; municipal solid waste; sustainable waste management; open dumping; integrated solid waste management; Wa Municipality; Ghana. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Bowan, P.A., Kayaga, S. and Fisher, J. (2020) ‘A baseline scenario of municipal solid waste management’, Int. J. Environment and Waste Management, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp.438–457. Biographical notes: Patrick Aaniamenga Bowan is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Civil Engineering in the School of Engineering at Wa Polytechnic in Ghana and is also involved in Consultancy Services. He has been with Wa Polytechnic since 2006 and completed a PhD in Civil Engineering in December 2018 from Water Engineering Development Centre (WEDC) in the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering,