The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has filed a contempt suit against the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) for its failure to stop dumping untreated human waste at the Korle Gonno Beach despite an order from the High Court to desist from the practice in 2014.
The EPA filed the suit last Friday and the court has fixed April 13 next month to hear the case.
At a news briefing in Accra yesterday, the Executive Director of the EPA, Mr Daniel S. Amlalo, explained that the agency had been pushed into taking the action because several efforts to stop the AMA from dumping the liquid waste at the beach, popularly referred to as “Lavender Hill”, had failed.
High court order
Last year, an Accra High Court ordered the AMA to refrain from dumping untreated human waste at the Korle Gonno beach due to its negative health implications on the environment.
It further ordered the assembly to make copies of its decommissioning plan available to the EPA within 14 days.
The order of the court followed an application of mandamus filed by the EPA asking the court to stop the AMA and its Chief Executive Officer, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, from polluting the Korle Gonno Beach.
However, according to Mr Amlalo, the AMA continued dumping the untreated human waste at the beach.
He further claimed that the assembly also defied the court’s order to submit a decommissioning plan to aid in the clearing process to the agency.
Justifying the decommissioning of the Lavendar Hill, Mr Amlalo said it was to enhance the beauty of the city to befit the status of a Millennium City and also to prevent the outbreak of cholera in the country this year.
Intransigence
He explained that the decision to close Lavender Hill started between 2010 -2012 when the EPA discussed with the AMA to develop a road map towards the eventual decommissioning and permanent closure of the Lavender Hill.
He said an enforcement notice was subsequently issued to the AMA on August 7, 2013, directing the assembly to immediately close the untreated Sewage Holding Facility at Korle-Gonno in Accra.
In pursuant of the directive, Mr Amalo said the EPA visited the site in August and September 2013 to monitor activities only to find out that the assembly was not complying with those directives.
As a result of the recalcitrance behaviour of the AMA, the executive director said the EPA filed an application of mandamus against the AMA at an Accra Fast Track High Court on February 12, 2014 where the court ordered the AMA to immediately cease the dumping of the waste at the beach.
The AMA was later given an extension of about eight months to close down the facility at Lavender Hill, however, Mr Amlalo claimed that AMA was still dumping waste at the site.
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