The Local Government Ministry has said it is not responsible for waste collection in assemblies across the country.
The Ministry said the current sanitation challenges facing the Accra Metropolitan Assembly does not have a direct link to the Ministry.
“This is not a problem that has a direct link to the Ministry,” said the Deputy Local Government Minister, Baba Jamal
He however noted that the Ministry is in talks with all Assembly heads to resolve the recurrent sanitation problems in the country especially, in Accra.
Waste collection companies in Accra have stopped collecting rubbish in the city blaming government indebtedness to them and the lack of landfill sites for the situation.
The sanitation problem has been aggravated with the shutting down of the Accra Compost and Recycling plant at Adjin Kotoku, leaving only the Kpone landfill site to serve the whole of the Greater Accra region.
A ranking member on Parliament’s Select Committee on Local Government and Rural Development, Kwesi Kyeremeh Ameyaw has threatened to drag the Ministry before the House over the matter.
In an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show, Baba Jamal said the management of garbage in the country is the sole responsibility of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
He stated that the MMDAs are also responsible for entering into management contracts with waste management companies but the Ministry only supervises the activities of the MMDAs.
Baba Jamal added that the Ministry has been having a series of meetings with the district assemblies “and we have made some progress as to how to ensure that some of these debts are paid.”
He assured the general public that “we have not slept on it; we are working assiduously to ensure that this problem is resolved within the shortest possible time.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana