Dompoase landfill site to last longer
The Dompoase engineered landfill site in Kumasi constructed by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly in 2004 to address the challenges of dumping of solid and liquid waste seems to have consigned the problem of dumping sites to history, at least for the next 25 to 30 years.
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According to the managers of the dumping site, J. Stanley Owusu and Company Limited, the first phase which was supposed to last five years and accommodate solid waste up to a height of 25 metres from the ground level has now reached a little above 22 metres, after operating for nine years.
The indication is that the first phase of the dump site which has been operating for a 24-hour period could still accommodate solid and liquid waste for the next two years before switching to the second phase, which is now lying idle.
“Because the dump site has a total of a 100-acre square land which is totally fenced, leased and documented, we do not have challenges of encroachment that could affect our operations,” the Senior Operations Manager of J. Stanley Owusu and Company Limited, Mr Abakisi Lincoln Brown, told the Daily Graphic in an interview.
He said the dump site was in layers, each of which was covered with geo-textile materials to prevent any form of leaching into underground water to contaminate it.
He indicated that perforated pipes had been laid at the site to suck liquids from the waste for treatment before being released into the environment.
Fumigation of the Dompoase Landfill site
When the Daily Graphic visited the Dompoase land fill site last Saturday, workers were busily fumigating the refuse dump with deodorant concentrate. The site receives an average of 1,300 metric tonnes of solid and liquid waste each day.
Fumigation is done every fortnight, not only to reduce offensive smell in and around the Dompoase community, but also to prevent houseflies and other insects from invading neighbouring households.
“We always fumigate the dumping site as part of the measures to bring down the odour as much as possible and also to ensure that houseflies and insects do not attack the houses in and around our catchment areas” Mr Lincoln Brown stressed during the interview.
“Because we fumigate the site at regular intervals and also carry out similar exercise in the various households in our operational area, we have managed to avoid any form of litigation and agitation from our neighbours,” he explained further.
On how they had succeeded in extending the lifespan of the first phase of the landfill site, Mr Lincoln Brown said the company had technical brains on the board who provided expert and technical advice on how to compress the waste and prevented any form of leaching.
He said it was the technical efficiency in managing the site since 2005 that had enabled them to extend the lifespan of the first phase which was supposed to last for only five years.
“When we took over as managers of the site, we were made to understand that by five years, the first phase would reach its capacity of 25-metre high, but due to our collaboration with the Waste Management Department of the KMA and the strict adherence to standard, we have operated the first phase for nine years without challenges,” he again explained.
Assuring the public of sustaining the technical expertise at the site to enable it to accommodate much more solid and liquid waste, Mr Lincoln Brown said with the efficient and effective management of the site, the Kumasi metropolis and its environs would not have any challenge as regards to waste dumping site at least for the next two or three decades.
By George Ernest Asare/Ghana