President John Dramani Mahama has tasked the Minister of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mahama Ayariga, to evacuate the huge heaps of waste at Sodom and Gomorrah as well as James Town Beach, both in Accra, to pave way for the strategic development of the two prime areas.
Mr Ayariga will work with his colleague Ministers of Finance, Defence and Roads and Highways to clear the waste, which has accumulated for over three decades.
When evacuated, the waste will be transported to the Adipa Waste Management Centre, a 200-acre landfill operated by the Jospong Group of Companies.
The minister announced this when he paid a working visit to the Adipa Waste Management Centre last Wednesday to assess its capacity to receive the waste.
President’s task
Mr Ayariga said once the two areas had been cleared, military personnel would be deployed to secure them and prevent squatters from returning to dump refuse or resettle there.
He was joined by the Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, and a senior military officer deployed by the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Williams Agyapong, to oversee the whole operation.
The team assessed the landfill’s capacity and the logistical requirements for transporting the waste from the two locations.
Mr Ayariga said the waste at Sodom and Gomorrah, near the Christ Temple of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), and at James Town Beach had accumulated for more than three decades.
He said having lived in Accra for several years, he had witnessed how the waste at the two locations increased in volume year after year.
“The four of us have put in place a plan to evacuate all that waste out of the locations,” he said.
Mr Ayariga said Dr Agyepong was invited to help identify a suitable facility to receive the waste, and indicated that the Adipa landfill was available.
“He assured us that if we are able to mobilise the trucks and the equipment that will take all that waste out, we could bring it to this location,” he said.
Development plans
The Minister of Local Government added that the Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, had “very interesting plans” for the development of the two areas, making the evacuation of the waste a priority.
He said the government needed to determine the volume of waste, the number of trucks required, the amount of fuel needed and the time it would take to complete the exercise.
“The Minister of Roads and Highways has committed to help with equipment to facilitate the clearance,” he said.
Public campaign
Mr Ayariga said the government would embark on a public education campaign to secure public support for the initiative and ensure that the areas once cleared were not returned to dumping grounds.
“We are engaging them and they have all expressed a willingness to support, and in some cases, voluntarily make their trucks and equipment available to assist government to evacuate the waste from there,” he said.
The Local Government Minister said the Ghana Highway Authority would also undertake an assessment of the sites to determine the volume of waste and the number of trucks required.
The Operations Manager of Jospong Group of Companies, Richard Omani-Mensah, said the Adipa Waste Management Centre had the capacity to receive more than 3,000 tonnes of waste daily.
He said the facility operated 24 hours and currently received between 1,500 and 1,600 tonnes of waste daily, including refuse from major locations such as the Makola Market.
Mr Omani-Mensah said the facility was ready to receive the waste evacuated from Sodom and Gomorrah and James Town Beach.
