Bawaleshie residents appeal for refuse containers

Residents of La Bawalashie, a suburb of Accra, have called on city authorities to supply them with refuse containers to help collect refuse in the locality and stop the indiscriminate disposal of waste.

The caretaker of the dumping site in the area, Salifu Yakubu, made the appeal when officials of Zoom Alliance, led by the Managing Director, Agyeinim Boateng Adjei, inspected an ongoing evacuation exercise under the one month special evacuation exercise last Saturday.

Mr Yakubu noted that if they could get at least three refuse containers from Zoom Alliance, they would be able to control the indiscriminate disposal of waste in the locality.

According to him, the heaped refuse had been there for close to two decades and had now become a dumping site for Abotsiman, Bawalashie and Mpasem, all suburbs of Accra, therefore, the three containers they were requesting for could be full each day.

He noted that most of the people dumped refuse anywhere close to the site at midnight when they, the caretakers were asleep and due to blackout, they were not able to monitor people who dumped at the site, thus not paying the little fees they charge.

The caretaker stated that the site was last cleared prior to the Farmers’ Day celebration in the municipality but had since been left until the Zoom Alliance team has come to clear the site.

Mr Agyenim Boateng Adjei has promised to provide them with the containers with the consent of the assembly but requested that they managed the place well to avoid another mountain of heap in the community.

He stated that there was the need for sustainability after the evacuation exercise and that there would be a dialogue with the assembly to ensure that the site was kept clean after the special exercise.

The Senior Technical and Operations Manager at Zoom Alliance, Kenneth Asare, in his remarks noted that they were expected to lift about 70,000 tonnes of refuse from all the sites under the special project within the one month period.

He noted that their challenge was with land fill sites, but stated that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development had offered to secure a dumping site for them.

Daily Graphic/Ghana