Private tricycle solid waste collectors in Kumasi who are stranded at the Oti Landfill are threatening to offload waste at unauthorised locations.

The waste collectors say they have been unable to access designated dumping points for four days due to congestion and alleged poor management at the site.

The situation has left dozens of tricycles queued at the landfill entrance, with waste beginning to decompose in the rain.

In protest over unresolved grievances, the frustrated waste collectors set tyres ablaze at the waste disposal site.

The act, they explained, was intended to draw the attention of authorities to the deteriorating conditions at the landfill.

Chairman of the Sanitation Tricycle Riders Association, Salim Mohammed, blamed the crisis on repeated breakdowns of compacting and levelling equipment at the landfill.

He said the faulty machines have left waste piling up with no way to manage it properly.

Salim added that the Kumasi Mayor has inspected the site on several occasions, and each visit, he said, came with promises and directives to repair the equipment and restore operations.

However, those assurances have not translated into action, and the conditions at the landfill remain unchanged.

“The Kumasi Mayor, Richard Ofori Agyemang, came here to witness our challenges and made promises and gave directives to resolve these issues, which we appreciate. But the challenges are worsening now,” he said.

He therefore appealed to Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to personally intervene and use his influence to ensure the necessary action is carried out to reduce the congestion at the landfill.

Salim stressed that the worsening situation poses serious environmental and health risks to nearby communities, and only the Asantehene’s intervention can compel the authorities to act swiftly and restore normal operations.

“Asantehene, you are our last hope. We are pleading for new equipment at the Oti Landfill and sufficient land to contain the waste so tricycle operators can work without these constant challenges. We are suffering,” he said as he and his members knelt.

Meanwhile, one waste collector, Baffour Bempah, warned that operators would be forced to dump waste at unauthorised points across the Oti Landfill site if officials failed to act.

“We have been stranded here for four days with tricycles full of decomposing waste and nowhere to offload,” he said.

He said some of them now sleep at the site out of fear that if they leave their tricycles, the tricycles or their parts will be stolen.

“We have to sleep here to protect our tricycles because if you leave them here, someone may steal them. And we all know that the environment is not safe for our health and we cannot keep this up. Our communities are already choking on filth because collection has stalled. If management does nothing by close of day, we will have no choice but to offload the waste here illegally. We refuse to keep driving around the city with rotting waste while residents suffer.”