AMA to review contracts of waste companies

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has stated that it has conducted an assessment of the performance of the various waste management companies in the metropolis and will soon provide the public with information on which firms will be maintained and which will be taken out.

The AMA’s Environmental Engineer, Mr. Amon Kotei, made the disclosure on Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM Monday, May 16, in a discussion on the show regarding efforts of the assembly to improve waste management in Accra.

“…Some of the contractors are not doing their best. There are about 13 different contracts. The AMA signed the contracts with them five years ago. The duration of the contracts was five years, so as I speak, the contract [we have with each of them] is over and a performance review has been undertaken to determine who did well and who did not. So, very soon, news about that will be made public. Those who deserve a renewal of contract, we will hold discussions. And those who do not deserve an extension, we take them out. We will pick new ones we think can do the job better. We are working on that and very soon we will come out and inform the public,” the AMA officials said.

Mr. Kotei told host C.J. Forson that the AMA had put in place strategies to deal with waste, right from the household level to the central business district of Accra. He said homes had been supplied with bins by the contracted companies who collected household rubbish weekly, with the residents bearing the cost of the rubbish at the end of each month. In areas inaccessible to garbage trucks, the AMA had provided a communal refuse point where households would deposit their refuse.

Mr. Amon Kotei explained that in the central business district of Accra, the AMA had cited 200 bins at vantage points to receive litter and it is the first phase of efforts by the Assembly to deal with littering. He added that it had also employed persons to sweep and clear drains in city centres and have the refuse gathered and promptly transported to dumpsites by trucks.

“Beyond all these, we have also adopted the software approach, which will check the negative attitude of some persons to dispose of rubbish indiscriminately. Our Environmental and Public Health Department takes care of that. They are on the field educating persons to talk them out of littering. And if anyone is found littering, our staff will report the matter so the culprit is dealt with”.