It has been reported that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), as part of efforts to rid the country of waste and keep communities clean, has started an exercise to evacuate about 13,000 tonnes of refuse in the Upper East Region.
In the Kassena Nankana Municipality, a 14-year-old 500 tonnes of refuse, located at Zongo on the popularly referred to as ‘Condemned’ road in Navrongo, took two days to evacuate.
Twenty sites are expected to be cleared in districts of the region to improve sanitation in the communities.
Two sites are to be evacuated in the Bongo District at the Bongo Soe Market in the Bolgatanga East District at the Zuarungu Chief Palace and the police station dumping sites would be cleared while the Datoko Site in the Talensi District would also be evacuated.
Other sites to be evacuated include Kulungugu in the Pusiga District, Tubong in the Garu District, three sites in the Bawku Municipality and in the Bulsa North District, the Sandema and Wiaga markets would be cleared.
The Teshie and Binaba markets refuse sites would also be dislodged.
Mr Joseph Adongo, the Municipal Chief Executive of the Kassena Nankana Municipal Assembly, who led a team to identify the locations for the exercise, said he was not happy with the indiscriminate disposal of refuse, particularly plastic waste at the damping sites in Navrongo.
Mr Pius Akambe, the Kassena Nankana Municipal Environmental Health and Sanitation Officer, said the Assembly placed importance on evacuation of refuse hence the need to identify and clear them in the area.
He said to address the indiscriminate dumping of refuse at the sites, containers would placed there and be monitored by Zoomlion attendants to help curb the pouring of refuse on the ground.
Mr Sixtus Kaba, the Assemblyman for the Zongo area was grateful for the exercise as it had helped to clear the congestion, which came with some bad stench that engulfed the area, making living there unbearable.
He was grateful for the cooperation received from his constituents, especially in preparation of an access area for the heavy-duty vehicles undertaking the exercise.
In 2023 four sites in four districts were evacuated in the Upper East Region namely; Bazua in the Binduri District, Kassena Nankana West, Fumbisi District and Bolgatanga Municipal.
The Daily Searchlight says;
That in spite of the heroic effort, we can say without equivocation that the refuse dumps would be back to their current levels in a few years.
We say this with authority, because the underlying fact that produce such refuse dumps, have not been addressed.
People would still continue to produce and use plastic sheets to carry goods, which they would indiscriminately dump in the environment.
People would still continue to mix vegetable waste with plastic and paper to create environmental bombs, and leave them in the environment.
The habit of indiscriminate leaving of waste by Ghanaians would continue, to the unforeseen future.
We believe that we would have been heartened, if we had learned that along with cleaning the waste, the ministry had set up a scheme to educate the general public on how the safely and sustainably deal with waste.
For instance, waste separation at source, is one of the ways by which a nation can sustainably deal with waste.
Waste is composed primarily of four or five things, mainly metals, plastic, paper, vegetable/food waste, biological waste (hazardous) and a few others.
The first four, which are primarily produced in homes, can be easily dealt with, if they are separated at source. Plastic and paper can be reprocessed. Vegetable waste is in fact valuable as source material for animal feed and fertilizer, and some biological waste, such as fecal matter, can be reprocessed for agricultural purposes.
We are therefore making the argument, that instead of waste becoming a social problem, it can actually be the basis of a whole economy and job creation avenue, by just educating people to learn to separate waste at source.
