Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Ghana’s biggest waste management company, has resourced newly created Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) with 500 compacting trucks to properly manage waste within its catchment areas.

The new trucks came with the requisite number of containers for efficient and effective operations in the country and is aimed at replacing the broken down sanitation trucks and also augment the MMDAs’ fight against the country’s sanitation menace.

The distribution of the newly procured vehicles is part of an existing contract with District Assemblies across the country, and would help in creating 300 direct and about 1,000 indirect jobs in the MMDAs.

Doing the presentation at a short ceremony at the Black Star Square in Accra, Chairman of the JOSPONG Group, Joseph Siaw Agyapong, said “This is part of our expanding strategy to meet the needs of our growing population and rapid urbanization.”

According to him Zoomlion’s strategies evolve with changing needs hence they required the support and collaboration of all citizens and stakeholders to be able to meet those needs.

According to Mr. Agyapong, “Zoomlion Ghana Limited fully supports the vision of the President, His Excellency Nana Akuffo Addo not only to make Accra a clean city but also to create jobs and promote the private sector.”

He said that the company embarked on a similar exercise in 2015 where some 2,000 compacting trucks and 5,000 tricycles were procured to ensure prompt collection and disposal of waste in the country.

He further announced plans by the waste management company to distribute one million bins to households for effective waste collection.

“We think that giving dustbins to each household would go a long way to solving the waste problem. Alongside this, we are digitizing bins by placing RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) stickers on the dustbins to be able to ensure that bins are lifted every day. This will allow us to know where they are located so that those collecting the rubbish can easily identify or locate the bins. This innovation is in line with the government’s digitisation efforts,” he said, adding that “Our teams are working in partnership with the School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences to find culturally acceptable solutions for waste to energy systems.”

For his part, Greater Accra Regional Minister, Ishmael Ashitey, said the distribution of the trucks to the assemblies “comes as a great relief to us charged with the responsibility of managing waste in the various regions”.

Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Hajia Alima Mahama commended Zoomlion for joining forces with the Ministry to rid the country off filth saying “There are indeed a number of challenges, but of course, the key one being financing and other areas being capacity with our Assemblies to manage the sanitation program because it is the responsibility of the district assemblies to take care of sanitation that is one of your key responsibility.”

According to the Minister, “if sanitation is an issue we will have to point hands at our MMDA`s and it is important that we have a partnership in this arrangement and therefore I commend Zoomlion for partnering MMDA`s to find solutions to the sanitation problem.”

She urged other corporate organisations to join Zoomlion in the fight against sanitation, calling on them to continually support the nation in its agenda to combat the issue of filth in and around the cities of Ghana.

Meanwhile, Zoomlion is in the process of introducing mobile compacting equipment to be stationed within specific communities for easy disposal and treatment of waste.

This will ease the pressure on existing transfer stations most of which have exhausted the allowable space, therefore, posing danger to some players in the management cycle.