Officials of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) are warning of an imminent disaster at the Kpone landfill site due to what they described as the poor management of the facility.

According to the Assembly, even though its waste department has the capacity to manage the facility, it was ordered to hand over to Waste Landfields Limited, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of companies.

According to the TMA Supervisor at the site, standard practices are not followed by the Jospong subsidiary company.

“The litter is now flying all over contaminating the environment. Also, there are no screens to take care of the flying materials and all these have combined to disqualify the site being an engineered landfill site,” he said.

At the time Joy News visited, access to the site was choked and refuse trucks and tricycles spent hours queueing to empty their content.

As part of the 'Robbing the Assemblies' investigative series, Joy FM’s Manasseh Azure Awuni explained why the TMA is stuck with the waste management company although it is failing to live up to expectations.

The reporter visited the Kumasi landfill site located at Oti in the Kumasi metropolis where he spoke to the manager, Pastor Michael Morisson Nyarko regarding how they go about processing garbage. 

Mr Nyarko explained to him how methodically they go about treating and covering to keep flies away from the site.

“We do that so there would not be flies, insects, and rodents to have access to the waste dumped here. The process undertaken also prevents odour,” he said.

The reporter found that what happens at the Kumasi landfill site managed by J. Stanley Owusu, one of the pioneer waste managed companies in the country, sharply contradicts what happens at Kpone site.

Unlike in Oti, refuse dumped at Kpone is not compacted or covered and apart from two machines pushing the refuse to make way for the dumping, nothing else is happening on the site.

Dark liquid from the site which officials say is toxic has been flowing into surrounding water bodies.

The Tema Metropolitan Director of Waste Management, Solomon Noi told Joy News that management of the landfill site after it was ordered to hand over to the Jospong company, has left much to be desired.

He said their current setup as a waste management department is well positioned with the right human resources to manage the site.

“The site was not put there by the World Bank and left but they added logistics but because it has been franchised to Jospong, all the equipment have been left to rot.

“If measures are not put in place to ensure that we get an alternative to what is happening now, there will be a disaster in the area in terms of a final disposal site," he said. 

Assemblies across the country have told Joy News they are burdened with debt after being made to sign dumpsite management contracts with Waste Landfields Limited even though some of them do not need such services.

“We can manage the landfill site without any headache, there is no need to give it to any private company. But we also don’t have control of the contract,” Mr Noi said.