An e-waste recycling plant at Agbogbloshie in Accra has been abandoned, two months after its establishment.
The Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mr Akwasi Opong-Fosu made the observation during a visit to the facility on Wednesday.
Scavengers in in the area continue to use the old way of extracting copper metals from electronic waste instead of patronizing the facility.
[contextly_sidebar id=”FuLZfmscmjQCx8LCRx7QDq8AIrWxpfGV”]Agbogboloshie; a former wetland now hosts the world’s largest electronic waste dumping site.
The issue has been a source of worry to residents in the area.
In order to have the situation resolved, the government in collaboration with Black Smith Institute, an international non-profit organization, constructed an e-waste plant at a cost of $85,000 in the area.
The facility which is equipped with four automated machines can extract wires from plastic coated cables from the e-waste.
Mr Opong-Fosu however assured that they will have an emergency meeting with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to bring the issue of e-waste to an end.
He intimated that the “facility has been established but the continued burning of cables to extract copper is still ongoing and now the facility is under-utilized.”
But, a scrap dealer, Suleiman who spoke to Daily Graphic denied that the facility had been abandoned.
He said in a day, about 30 scrap dealers visited the facility and had their metals scrapped.
In a related development, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Julius Debrah has assured that Agbogbloshie popularly known as Sodom and Gomorrah, and other slums in the country will soon be face lifted.
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana