The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR), Freda Prempeh, has supervised the commencement of the evacuation of 33 refuse dump sites, including a century-old one at Techire Zongo in the Tano North Municipality in the Ahafo Region.

The evacuation was part of a nationwide exercise being conducted by the MSWR, in partnership with the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGDRD) and Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL), a waste management company.

It is aimed at eliminating sanitation-related diseases and improving sanitation situations in communities, as some of the refuse dump sites are located in the heart of most communities.

Sweet and bitter experience

It was a sweet and bitter experience for some community members, particularly at the Techire Zongo refuse dump site when the exercise commenced on Tuesday.

Even though the residents, especially those living closer to the site were excited about the evacuation of the 100-year-old site, they could not endure the stench that emanated from the site during the exercise.

However, they commended the government for considering their plight by clearing the refuse and appealed to the government to put measures in place to prevent people from re-dumping refuse at the evacuated site.

Speaking during the exercise at the Techire Zongo refuse dump, Ms Prempeh said the exercise reaffirmed the government’s commitment to making the country, particularly Accra, the cleanest city in Africa.

“It is the intention and vision of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to keep Ghana clean,” she stated, explaining that refuse sites within communities put residents at risk because they could easily contract diseases such as typhoid, chorea, hepatitis “B” and malaria.

Ms Prempeh said the existence of refuse dumps closer to residential areas had enormous health hazards for the residents, particularly children and lactating mothers.

She said the government was collaborating with private sector organisations to ensure proper management of waste and the environment across the country.

Possession

Ms Prempeh, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tano North, said the government would take possession of some of the evacuated sites, particularly those within communities, for the development of projects.

She said the ministry would collaborate with the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to strengthen the placement of containers at dumping sites to ensure proper management of waste in communities.

Mrs Prempeh said the Ministry had developed strategic evacuation plans such as identifying the number of containers and trucks to be placed at each site and the period needed to carry the waste.

She advised the public to stop dumping refuse in unauthorised areas such as streets, public places and gutters to avoid flooding.

Relocation

The Ahafo Regional Coordinator of the ZGL, Edward Ziddah, said 33 refuse dump sites would be evacuated in the region.

He explained that new places had been identified in the communities for relocating dump sites.

Mr Ziddah said although the region had an Integrated Recycling and Composting Plant (IRECOP) to process solid waste into high-quality compost, the plant was not ready to receive the waste collected.

He said the company was putting measures in place to re-tool the plant to boost its capacity to receive waste for recycling.  

The Adontehene of the Techire Traditional Council, Nana Kwame Tubo Atta, said the clearing of the site had brought a sigh of relief to the chiefs and people in the community.

He explained that the site was a nightmare to the community and pledged that the chiefs of the community would partner with ZGL to provide logistics to relocate the site to prevent the outbreak of diseases in the area.