Oblogo dumping site full, New dump can last only 18 months

Frontpage, July 2, 2008
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
Authorities in the national capital are overwhelmed by the issue of where to dump 2,000 tonnes of refuse generated by residents daily.
The Oblogo refuse dump, which is currently being used by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), has been declared full and it will, therefore, be closed down next month.
The AMA Chief Executive, Mr Stanley Nii Adjiri-Blankson, who announced this yesterday, stated that the assembly had, therefore, found a temporary site at Saba, near Weija for use by the end of August this year.
He was briefing members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government on the operations of the assembly and the state of affairs of the metropolis.
According to him, the temporary site at Saba would be able to contain the refuse generated within the city for only 18 months, after which the assembly would have no other place to dump waste.
“If that happens, it will be difficult for us to collect the waste generated in the city and the situation will not augur well for the health of residents,” he said.
Mr Adjiri-Blankson stated that the only option for the assembly was to complete the preparation of the Kwabenya Landfill Site which would be able to last for more years.
He explained, however, that the current stand-off between the assembly and residents of Kwabenya had prevented it from going on with the preparations for the use of the site.
Mr Adjiri-Blankson, therefore, appealed to the committee to assist the assembly to resolve the stand-off to enable it to use the site to ensure a clean environment within the metropolis.
He also touched on the springing up of unauthorised structures all over the metropolis and said the problem was being tackled with the recruitment of additional building inspectors to control physical development.
The chief executive added that one major problem confronting the assembly was the re-emergence f recalcitrant hawkers on pavements and streets after the assembly had spent millions of cedis to construct a magnificent shopping mall at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.
“The reality on the ground is that most of the hawkers you see on the streets own stalls at the mall but for no apparent reason they have openly refused to occupy the stalls,” he said.
On revenue generation by the assembly, Mr Adjiri-Blankson said it undertook an exercise to collect its business operating permit fees in the latter part of 2006.
He stated that within a period of three months it was able to collect more than GH¢1.1 million, against a collection of GH¢200,000 within the same period in the previous year.
He added that the assembly had also completed the revaluation of properties in the metropolis and gave the assurance that through the exercise the assembly would increase its revenue from property rates from GH¢1.9 million to about GH¢6.5 million.
“We are also taking measures to reduce to the barest minimum the leakage in our financial system in order to achieve maximum revenue targets,” he said.
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government, Mr Isaac Edumadze, commended the assembly for its efforts and gave the assurance that the committee would lobby the appropriate authorities to solve the problems facing the AMA.