Garbage Engulfs Accra

Waste managers in Accra are at their wits' end as to what to do with the mounting heaps of garbage at collection points in the various suburbs. The unsavoury situation is the fall-out from the lack of planning associated with our urban settings over the years.

The contractors charged with the task of emptying the containers located at vantage points are virtually on holiday. They have nowhere to empty the garbage and this has resulted in the mess in most parts of the city for the past six days.

The drainage system is the worse for it as residents have resorted to dumping their domestic refuse in gutters, a situation which has been a contributory factor to the perennial flooding in Accra.

This is the umpteenth time that the city is witnessing this situation. In previous cases the problem had to do with the shortage of vehicles to collect the garbage. This time round though, there are enough vehicles but no landfills to take in the collected garbage.

For the past six days the usual point for dumping the city's garbage has been a no-go area for the garbage trucks because residents are resisting the practice on health grounds. A couple of months ago the Environmental Protection Agency expressed worry about a brownish fluid oozing into houses close to the Malam landfill which it noted posed a health hazard to the residents.

One of the new contractors who spoke to The Accra Mail yesterday said when his trucks attempted using the Teshie dumping site they were not allowed to do so because the people there said if they allowed it, the whole area would be swallowed by the city's garbage. They were also worried about the inadequacy of their dumping site and would therefore not allow Accra trucks to come there.

The Public Relations Officer of the AMA when contacted on the subject said he had just resumed duty after a short break and could therefore not comment on the situation. His boss, the Metro Chief had also travelled outside Accra.

Arrangements, we have reliably learnt are on however to find an alternative dumping site until the recycling plant at Kwabenya gets operational. Efforts to get the Greater Accra Regional Minister to talk on the proposed recycling plant which is expected to offer a long standing solution to the problem were not possible.

Mr. S.B. Akuffo, an environmental expert who has been writing on the subject for sometime now when contacted to proffer his views on the problem had this to say: "In planning our cities and other urban centres we fail to include such important points like dumping sites. When such sites are included at all land developers ignore them and go ahead to build on them.

"What is happening currently is as a result of this attitude of ours to planning. We must stop haphazard development. Areas should be zoned and once this is done nobody should be allowed to encroach upon places earmarked for such purposes as dumping sites.

"We are concentrating too much on conferences with virtually nobody in control of affairs. We are unable to enforce regulations in this country."

At Alajo domestic birds were seen having a field day on one of the overfilled garbage containers. Residents who did not know exactly what was happening complained that the containers had not been emptied since Saturday.

Some residents have started turning away kids and adults who in spite of the overfilled containers still dump their refuse around aggravating the already horrible situation.

When The Accra Mail visited the Tudu area a garbage truck had finally come to empty the garbage which had piled up for six days behind the Polytechnic. A vulcaniser operating opposite the containers said the driver of the truck told him that he just did not know where to dump the refuse. For the residents though it was a big relief for the time being as they did not know when the next garbage truck would visit.

Waste management has been a major problem for the city authorities for many years now. A few years ago the government entered into a murky arrangement with a foreign company for refuse disposal in the city. The amount involved was so colossal that on assumption of office the new Greater Accra Regional Minister, Sheikh I.C. Quaye abrogated the deal and shared the contract among local contractors, who have since been going about the function until this landfill crisis emerged.