Speaking on Wednesday when the President of Benin, Patrice Athanase Talon paid a day’s working visit to Ghana, President Akufo-Addo said, “We should endeavour to establish direct flights between Accra and Cotonou to facilitate the movement of persons and goods. We should further try to establish direct shipping lines, linking Accra to Cotonou, to facilitate trade between us. We need to push for the Sealink Shipping Project, an ECOWAS initiative, to help link our two countries.”

“With West Africa’s population set to reach some 500 million people in 20 years time, there are immense opportunities to bring prosperity to our region with hard work, enterprise and creativity,” the President added as an indication of the prospects for the sub-region.

Revitalizing the PJCC

President Akufo-Addo, however bemoaned the fact that only one meeting of the Permanent Joint Commission of Co-operation (PJCC), has been held, despite the good relations that exist between the countries.

A preliminary Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in 2016, after Benin requested assistance in the exploitation and exploration of hydrocarbons, reactivating the Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation.

Other areas of cooperation, per the MoU, include fisheries, security, communication and education, among other sectors.

President Nana Akufo-Addo stressed that, there is the need to “reconvene another session of the PJCC, and I propose that we hold the next meeting in Cotonou as soon as possible.”

“Not only will the PJCC serve as a platform for enriching commercial relations between our countries, it will also facilitate the implementation of regional instruments such as the Common External Tariff of ECOWAS,” he said.

He also assured that, Ghana will continue to co-operate with Benin within other multilateral frameworks, such as the Volta Basin Authority, to promote and safeguard the equitable sharing of common water resources of the Authority.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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“The current situation is such that the country is sitting on a time bomb and if the issue is not resolved, the city will be engulfed with filth and the health implications will be serious,” he said.

He noted that with the closure of the Accra Compost Plant, the only plant currently operating was the Kpone dump site and with the onset of the rains and the unavailability of a dump site in Accra; pressure would be mounted on the only dump site.

Explaining the huge tonnes of waste Accra generates, Mr Coleman stated that the Accra Compost Plant receives 70 trucks of refuse each day, giving the Compost Plant 600 tonnes of waste to process.

“Each truck collects 150 bins, representing 150 homes, and with the closure of the Compost site, one can imagine the waste that will be left in homes even for three days,” he added.

He said the closure will also put so much pressure on the Kpone dump site, with many trucks lined up waiting for their turn to off-load their trucks and “this also means that if a truck does eight trips in a day, with the current situation, each truck can only do at least one trip in a day.”

The Accra Compost and Recycling Plant was shut down on May 19, for the inability of government to pay the GHC 20 million as part of the contract signed between the two.

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development represented government in signing the contract

Government’s part of the contract was to bear the cost of tipping the waste that was received and processed at the plant.

The closure has resulted in heaps of refuse not being collected from homes and other collection sites, sending a health alert to citizens in the region.

Mr Coleman appealed to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to ensure that it also fulfills its obligation of giving the waste management agencies the final refuse dumping sites as stipulated in the bye laws.

“If the Assembly is able to offer the final dumping sites, this problem will be resolved,” he added.

He also pleaded with the various households to bear with them as the closure has resulted in delay s in the collection of refuse.

Source: GNA

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The shut down follows a delay in releasing the funds that the company needs to run its operations. Government is being accused of delaying in paying the people who run the plant.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Business Development Manager at the Accra Compost Plant, Michael Padi Tuwor confirmed the closure of the plant.

”As we indicated last week of our plans to suspend operations should the situation not improve that much; yes,as at this morning [Monday] we’ve directed all the contractors  that supply us the waste not to bring in the waste,” he stated.

Mr. Padi Tuwor further revealed that the company has asked over 100 staff  to stay home until government pays them the money owed them. ”If the situation doesn’t improve any better the next 100 will also have to join.”

According to him, his outfit for over two years ran the compost plant with their own funds. He noted that the Local Government ministry is yet to respond to their demands.

He revealed that government owes the company about 23 million Ghana Cedis.

He said the facility had to be shut down because they cannot continue to run the business on loan. ”We had to be running the business since 2012 on loans and other source of high cost of funding which we cannot stretch ourselves to that limit,” he said.

On his part, Communications Director of Zoomlion, Robert Coleman said the current situation is ”rather unfortunate”.

According to him the refuse companies have no option. ”We have no other option than to migrate to the dump site at Kpone.”

He said, ”I have confirmation from a lot of drivers; about 45 of our trucks are not able to dump then what it means is that we cannot collect  the refuse as we must do.”

Mr. Coleman opined that the closure of the Compost and Recycling Plant will affect waste collection from Tuesday. ”Certainly it is going to aggravate the whole situation; waste collection is going to grind to a halt because we cannot refuse and then send it another region to go and dump,” he added.

He said waste from Accra must be sent to the areas around Accra.

The plant treats and recycles waste generated in Accra and its environs.

By: Evans Effah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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