Heaps of rubbish are sitting in areas in the Ahanta West District in the Western Region.
The reason is the delay in funding from government to waste management company, Zoomlion, which means that the company cannot pay their workers, and that the Assembly is using a lot of it’s common fund to pay for the disposal of waste.
“It is hard to believe that Zoomlion actually came and emptied the container only two days ago,” a young woman emptying her bucket on top of a heap of rubbish said.
Only about twenty meters away, the other women are trying to sell their fish and vegetables in the big market in Agona Nkwanta.
Delay of payment
Zoomlion is the company in charge of the management and disposal of waste in Ahanta West District.
Due to delays in the release of the funds from government, the workers of Zoomlion have not received their salary for months.
“We have not received any payment for the last 6 months, and still we are working. We can only hope that the payment will come one day,” says one of the workers of Zoomlion standing next to the overfilled container.
One of the workers complained that he once waited seven months before being paid.
Doing all they can
The Deputy Western Regional Manager of Zoomlion, Edward Keteku, is aware of the seriousness of the situation.
He said that Zoomlion is doing all it can, to find money to pay their workers.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Mhz8FU4Fosft0CKdbGA4p7Af8EzznOZB”]”It is our duty to clean the waste here, so whatever happens, we need to find the money to do the work, and that is what we have been doing,” he said.
He explained that Zoomlion still has still not received their part of the Common Fund from government in the last 19 months.
“If there is even one day or three days of delay in the funding, it can cause some big problems for us. The current situation that we are in right now, demands us to keep on the work. Making sure that our cars are on the road, and that our workers are on the street,” says Edward Keteku.
He pointed out that the delay and lack of funding is not only a problem in Ahanta West District, but in the whole of Ghana. Zoomlion is trying to find money within the organisation, but it is a difficult task.
“Zoomlion is working in big numbers. We have over 55,000 workers throughout Ghana and we therefore have to look for a huge amount of money. But we are hoping that within this month we will be able to pay our workers,” he said.
In the meantime Zoomlion is sending out officers to try and encourage the workers to keep on doing their job, assuring them that the payment will come later.
“In Accra the managers of Zoomlion are trying to put pressure on the government, but nothing has happened so far,” he added.
Using Assembly money
At the district Assembly in Ahanta West they are very concerned about the whole situation with the level of sanitation.
According to the District Chief Executive in Ahanta West, Hon. Joseph Dofoyenah, it is a huge challenge for the Assembly that the workers at Zoomlion have not received any pavement yet.
“Our community members are not aware of the fact that it is the Central Government’s fault that the communities are turning into giant refuse dumps. Instead they come to us and complain about the level of sanitation,” says the District Chief Executive.
UCSOND were one of the organisations that first raised the issue of the level of sanitation to the Assembly.
The Assembly is therefore using a lot of their Common Fund on hiring private contractors to come and do the job that Zoomlion was supposed to do in the first place.
“We are using a lot of our money on the disposal of waste right now. Money that could have been spent elsewhere on some of the other problems that we have here in Ahanta West. In fact, I do not blame Zoomlion for the problem, but I blame the whole system itself. If the Central Government were better at giving us the Common Fund at the right time, we would not have had this problem,” says Hon. Joseph Dofoyenah.
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By: Alaxander Jonassen/citifmonline.com/Ghana