Ministry Of Sanitation And Water Resources: 75% Solid Waste Generated In Urban Centers Properly Managed

Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Hon. Cecilia Abena Dapaah has indicated that the sanitation service delivery in the cities have witnessed significant improvement in recent times as report released by the Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation shows 75 percent of the solid waste generated in the urban centers is properly managed.

“According to the 2019 report released by the Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation, 75% of the solid waste generated in the urban centres is now properly managed”, she revealed.

According to her, the management of solid waste, especially within the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) over the years has been plagued with a number of challenges with one of the key challenges being inadequate treatment and final disposal facilities.

“For example, Ghana can boast of only four public engineered landfill facilities which are located in Tamale, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi and Kpone, near Tema. A fifth one of relatively small scale located in Ho has just been completed. Unfortunately, all the four major facilities have been poorly managed over the years, resulting in serious environmental concerns”, she stated.

Addressing the media in the Ministry of Information’s “Meet The Press” series, the Sanitation and Water Resources Minister revealed that the other major solid waste treatment facility is the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant (ACARP) located at Adjen-Kotoku which was constructed through a PPP arrangement between Government and Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

Hon. Cecilia Dapaah again mentioned that as part of the measures of the Akufo-Addo government to overhaul the waste management infrastructure regime in Ghana, extensive engagement with prospective local and foreign investors are far advanced to transform the existing poorly-managed landfill facilities.

She further revealed that the new direction of the Ministry is to pursue the development of more sustainable waste treatment options such as Waste-to-Energy, Composting and Recycling, starting from Kpone and Kumasi.

“In line with the above, the Ministry is leveraging the sanitation component of the Sinohydro facility to construct the following sanitation infrastructure:

One No. 1,800 metric tonnes per day Incineration Plant for Accra West
Three No. 200 metric tonnes per dayTransfer Stations for Accra East
Two No. 200 metric tonnes per dayTransfer Stations for Kumasi
Two No. 100 metric tonnes per dayTransfer Stations for Sekondi-Takoradi
Two No. 100 metric tonnes per dayTransfer Stations for Tamale”, she listed.

Towards this goal of the Akufo-Addo government, Hon. Cecilia Dapaah says her Ministry is creating Land-Banks at strategic locations to be utilised as equity to support the private sector in the development of waste management infrastructure; thus the process of acquiring the first four parcels of land is in progress.