Accra is facing a threat of disease outbreak as all landfill sites within the city have reached full capacity, according to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).

This alarming update was shared with the Parliamentary Committee on Sanitation and Water Resources during a recent working visit to assemblies in the Greater Accra Region.

Director of Waste Management at the AMA, Engineer Solomon Noi, explained that the situation has become increasingly dire due to a lack of engineered landfill sites and proper waste disposal infrastructure.

“We used to dump at a place called Nsumia in Ga West, after Blue Skies, and it was a quarry site. Once we filled that depression, we had to move to where we are now, Nsawam. Nsawam Adoagyiri was using it too, and it later became a Greater Accra and Eastern Region site which is now privately managed by West Landforce,” he said.

Mr Noi added that the only engineered site available is at Kpone, while a new one is being considered at Ayidan in the Ga South Municipality.

“There are certain things to look out for before siting a dump site.  So with the exception of the one at Kpone, and the new one we are thinking of getting at Ayidan, there's nothing like that,” he said.

He warned that without immediate intervention, the city could soon experience a health crisis.

“What we are doing is collecting waste from Accra and sending it far away, but it’s not really far enough. These sites are not engineered. So, when it rains, the leachate seeps into rivers and depressions, and it finds its way back to the city,” he said.

Mr Noi also raised concerns about health risks from improperly managed medical and sanitary waste and the role of waste pickers, many of whom are migrants from neighbouring countries, in spreading infections.

“All the hospital and health care waste ends up there. It mingles with other waste, and these people come back into town with it, that’s why we keep seeing cycles of cholera, typhoid, and other infections,” he explained.

To prevent further public health threats, he recommended the construction of a modern intermediate waste treatment facility.

“The way to go for government is to get an intermediate treatment facility such as a state-of-the-art incineration plant to deal with non-recyclables like baby diapers, sanitary pads, and healthcare waste,”
“Pathogens would die in the furnace before the bottom ash is taken to a landfill site. That’s how we close the chain of disease infection,” he said.