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The Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development in collaboration with waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana, has begun evacuation of mountains of waste across 10 selected municipal, metropolitan and district assemblies in the Western Region.
The beneficiary districts include the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis, Ahanta West Municipality, Wassa East, Mpohor, Nzema East Municipality, Ellembelle, Amenfi East, Amenfi Central and Amenfi West.
The beneficiary communities described the intervention by the ministry and Zoomlion as timely saying, “As we are about to enter the rainy season, the waste must be moved.”
The assemblies said the mountains of waste had become an environmental hazard and a health threat to the people.
Residents commended Zoomlion and the ministry for the initiative, saying they had lived with some of the mountains of refuse for more than between 50 and 90 years.
Aside from that, residents said due to the mountains of waste they were unable to go out in the afternoon because of the pungent smell from the smoldering waste which also emitted heavy smoke to their discomfort.
Some of the residents said the challenge of the mounds of waste was largely attributable to the behaviour of the host communities and the fact that they were not aware of the health implications.
They called on district assemblies to deploy environmental officers to communities to educate the people on the dangers and the impact of their actions on their health.
An engineer and a resident of Sekondi-Takoradi, Kweku H. Adjei, said; “We need to get to the level where we educate the community to understand that all forms of plastics, papers, metal and other non-degradable materials could be recycled – that companies in these recycling businesses will buy them back, in some jurisdictions waste is imported for energy generation – but in Ghana the story is different.”
Mr Adjei said uncollected waste always posed a threat to residents, adding, “As the rain sets in, chunks of it would be washed into the sea and that is not good. The best way is to ensure strict enforcement of environmental laws and let the citizenry change their attitude towards mother nature.”
Officials of Zoomlion said they were committed to ensuring that all the communities identified with waste had them cleared according to the arrangement it had with the ministry.
The municipal, metropolitan and district assemblies selected under the project in the region and Zoomlion, have identified locations to dump the waste evacuated from the communities.
