Refuse Mountain Takes Over Kasoa Road

Odupong Kpehe, popularly referred to as Kasoa is a town located along the Accra-Winneba road in the Central Region. Its close proximity to Accra gives the impression of it being in the Greater Accra Region. It is well known as a market centre where almost all of Ghana's staple foods are sold. A decade ago the area was just a small market town with a few inhabitants but is now one of the most congested places in Ghana.

Despite the overwhelming growth in the numbers of its inhabitants, Kasoa is struggling with limited infrastructure. The town has only two public toilets, serving its over growing population. It has no gutters. With the slightest downpour, inhabitants are helplessly stranded.

With the increase in human activity has also grown the problem of waste management. This is now threatening to engulf parts of the town in uncollected waste.

At certain vantage points where there are refuse containers, these containers are left to overflow for several weeks before they are emptied, if at all.

A mountainous refuse dump as a result, has developed on the Kasoa-Obom road where waste is spread all about.

This started about six years ago, when the few inhabitants around the site gathered refuse in their houses and then disposed the rubbish off in the containers that were placed there. Due to the growth in area size and population, the containers, which took weeks to fill now fill up within a matter of hours.

The authorities in charge of emptying the containers seem unconcerned even as the rubbish keeps piling up.

The residents who have no choice or other means of disposing of their waste have kept accumulating their rubbish at the site.

Because the containers are not picked regularly, the overflowing garbage covers them completely and they get "lost" in the rubbish, then new containers have to be brought to "replace" them and they also suffer the same fate. At the last count, 11 containers have been lost to the growing mountain.

Rauf Dzotrah Asikopaa, Chief Adviser Obom Road GPRTU, who has his drinking bar close to the refuse dump told ADM that, "when the vehicles come for the containers, they bring them back the same day and tell us that they did not get a place to dispose of the rubbish". He pointed to five full containers placed near the refuse dump as evidence. He said Obom road links to other towns like, Adeisu, Nsawam, Amasaman, Pokuase, Ashalaja, Bawjiase and others and is the route most favoured by vehicles plying those parts to bring their stuff to the market.

He said because the authorities had neglected their responsibility to collect the mountain-high refuse heap, the pile up had extended in area to take over the Kasoa-Obom road.

He said once a while a clean up exercise is organized to clear the road in order to give way to vehicles. The road which three vehicles could use at the same time, has been narrowed to the extent that, only one vehicle can ply it at a time.

Mr. Dzotrah said apart from the bad odour which the refuse diffuses into the atmosphere, "the situation is compounded during the day, when liquid substances discharged from the refuse cover the road."

He said this had turned the road into a muddy path, which gets worse when it rains. "The mud is often as deep as 15 inches, making it impossible for people to walk" he said.

He complained bitterly that "for the past years we have had no fresh breath of air. Due to our location and the situation at hand people look down upon us, because both passersby and those on vehicles have to cover their noses, simply because they cannot stand the stench from the refuse".

Faustina Dorkumah, a woman who used to sell around the site said the refuse mountain has affected her business. "I used to operate a chop bar here, from which I earned a living. Because of the bad smell, people stopped buying food from me and I had to abandon job."

Dordumah said she had remained jobless for a while because "the land belongs to my father and I have no where else to go".

She criticized the empty promises of the Assemblyman, Alex Mustapha who had told them that measures were being put in place to collect the refuse and turn the place to a lorry park.

ADM has been unable to get the Assemblyman's reactions. Togbe Gadotor II, the secretary to the Assemblyman however told ADM that the assembly needed over 35 million to work on the refuse dump.

He said even though all the revenue generated from the market is given to the Ewutu Council, whenever they asked the District Chief Executive (DCE) of the area to give them money to renovate the market and undertake other projects "the DCE tells us that there is no money".

He said, "The environmental crisis at Kasoa has got to a point that we can not help it any longer". He called on the central government to intervene and assist them in solving the problem.