Ghana’s waste management challenge has been attributed to Government’s inability to pay huge debts owed sector players to enable them to deliver their mandate in ensuring that waste is collected and managed effectively.

The President of the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA), Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong who made this revelation at an annual general meeting of the association held in Accra, disclosed that the various waste management companies despite their capacity are unable to deliver because accrued debts owed them have not been paid.

The President of Ghana, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo in his state of the nation address admitted that government owes various service providers in the sanitation sector and admonished that, plans are far advanced to offset those debts.

Dr. Agyepong disclosed that, members of ESPA have to depend on loan facilities from banks with consequential high interest rates before they can operate. “Indeed majority of us also depend on overdraft facilities for our operations with its consequential high interest rates”, he lamented.

The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mr. Joseph Kofi Adda who spoke as a special guest at the event admitted that government owes service providers and efforts are been made to pay those debts to enable them deliver on their mandate.

He commended ESPA for the various research and academic engagements it has undertaken to help conduct adequate research in the waste management sector and help develop innovations that will bring lasting solutions to Ghana’s waste problem.

The Environmental Services Providers Association is an umbrella body of private waste companies handling waste of various categories for Metropolitan/Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAS), in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement.

The Second Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association was on the theme “Sustainable capitalization as a driving tool to improve sanitation in the sector”.