These mountains of waste according to the assemblies have become an environmental threat to the health of the people as children use them as playgrounds, while others, including adults, use them as a place to defecate.

 Residents say some of the mountains of refuse created by them have not been collected for  between 40 and 90 years , a situation which has become a normal part of the communities, leading to the pollution of surface water and rivers.

 Aside from that, residents say due to these mountains of waste they are unable to go out in the afternoon because of the pungent smell and the heavy smoke emitted by the fire set to it at all times.

 The evacuation which started in Prestea Huni-Valley, Tarkwa, Ahanta West, Jomoro and  Shama District, will ensure the complete removal of the waste. 

 The District Chief Executive of Shama, Emmanuel Dadzie, said the intervention of the local government ministry was timely, saying, “at our level we try to do our best by evaluating some but our resources are limited.”
 

Attitudinal change

Currently in the Shama district, we have more than seven of such sites and we will ensure they are evacuated although due to the locations we do not have easy access but we will still find a way out to get it done.

 He said the challenge with these waste piles was largely attributable to the behaviour of the host communities and the fact that they were not aware of the health implications.

 “What we are doing in our district is to ensure that our environmental officers are deployed to the communities to educate the people on the dangers and impact of their actions on the health of our people,” he said.

 “What we need to do now to make it sustainable is to ensure that we place communal containers to ensure that community members have a structured place to dump their waste,” he added said. 
 

Waste recyclable

The next level is to let the communities understand that waste is not a waste, but rather a raw material for the next line of production by another company.

“We need to get to the level where we educate the community to understand that all forms of plastics, paper, metal and other non-degradable materials could be recycled – that companies in these recycling businesses will buy them back.”

 The Shama District Environmental Officer, Mr Emmanuel Kudor, said the removal of these lingering heaps of refuse would greatly improve the health condition in the communities.