Residents living in Ghana’s capital city will have to endure poor waste management processes due to the lack of landfill sites, the Mayor of Accra has revealed.
For almost a month now, refuse generated by residents have not been collected. Residents have been calling on the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to call the refuse collection companies to order.
But it seems the companies are not to blame for the poor waste collection and residents in Accra will have to wait for a long time for an efficient collection system.
Speaking on the Cit Breakfast Show (CBS), the mayor of Accra, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije said the only available landfill site in Kpone was recently closed by the Management of the site.
”… for the past two weeks we have had to deal with the issue of dumping over there; the management of the place threatened to close the place two weeks ago because they have not been paid,” he said.
”This challenge will be with us for sometime,” he noted.
According to him the Accra Metropolitan Assembly ( AMA) has however negotiated with the management of the Kpone dump site to allow for dumping of refuse.
He also revealed that the AMA plans to construct an engineered landfill site with a recycling plant for the metropolis to ease the pressure on Kpone.
”We are also bringing in 30 refuse [tracks] which will be punctual, which will be prompt, which will engage in efficient and effective collection of refuse throughout the metropolis,” he added.
Mr. Oko Vanderpuije said the Kpone site is currently the only appropriate landfill site for dumping of refuse.
Asked when we should expect the situation to change in Accra, the AMA boss responded that ”we will continue to manage; we have to manage with effective collection of the refuse…”
An urban specialist at the World Bank, Mr Emmanuel Nkrumah said the problem with regards to landfill is the management and planning of it.
He advised that Accra is planned well and areas earmarked for certain necessary facilities like landfill sites.
”The key to waste disposal and waste management is to Town and Country Planning and the Management it self,” he said.
Mr. Nkrumah furthered stated if the country cannot manage waste then recycling may be a big challenge. ”Recycling is very good only if we can manage and make sure that we can do the separation; but if a common landfill we cannot manage, one begins to wonder whether we can do the recycling.”
He suggested however that Ghana can contract a private company to do the recycling.
By : Evans Effah/citifmonline.com/Ghana