Dumping sites to be turned to recreational centres — Cecilia Dapaah
The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, has said the ministry is collaborating with stakeholders to ensure that dumping sites that have been left for several years unattended to are properly re-engineered and developed into recreational centres to promote tourism.
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Citing the 20-year-old heaps of refuse at the Korle Dudor site, Old Fadama, she said the heaps of refuse at the site would be re-engineered.
Mrs Dapaah indicated that the mandate of the ministry under the Greater Accra Resilient Integrated Development(GARID) project was to clear unnecessary and illegal heaps of refuse that had the potential of being washed into the Odaw River.
She made this known at Old Fadama as part of her familiarisation tour of the area last Wednesday.
Old Fadama has a population of about 152,000 made up of mainly scrap dealers, mechanics, kayayeis, food vendors and street hawkers.
As part of the tour, she visited the Madina Market and the Ofankor Railway dumpsite, among others.
Mrs Dapaah reiterated that as part of the support provided by the Ministry, heaps of refuse in towns and cities that used to be the phenomenon were no more.
On the issue of waste management within the Odaw Basin, the minister further explained that the approach of sorting out refuse was the way to go since it was also a means of job creation for the youth. In this sense, the washout of refuse into the Odaw River would be eliminated because the river was a living organism.
She added that at the Kpone site, the re-engineered landscape was so airy that people could use it as a recreational centre or a place for weddings for a fee to be used for maintenance and development.
In Dubai, Mrs Dapaah further explained, they used to bury their waste but now they had re-engineered their waste into a complex unit, including recycling plants estimated at the cost of about $1.2 billion.
Ministry
She announced that already her ministry had distributed about 8,100 litter bins and was currently taking stock of them to replace and supply the worn-out ones.
Mrs Dapaah, therefore, called on residents of the area to avoid “burning electronic waste as it becomes hazardous and it pollutes the environment”.
The minister said generally during her rounds she was “happy that as a Minister of Sanitation what we used to see as heaps of garbage in towns is no more".
She further explained that “as a ministry, we are to make sure that refuse or waste is not dumped into the Odaw River because that water body should be a living organism.
What we have seen here is that they have sorted out for recycling some items and I support that as it makes absolute sense to produce jobs for the youth".
Mrs Dapaah urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and sanitation courts to prosecute those who flouted sanitation laws, including those who leave their stray animals to roam the streets of Accra.
She said when the animals were seized, as an offence, they could be sold and the proceeds used to develop beneficiary communities.
Reduce prices
At the Madina market, Mrs Dapaah told traders to reduce their prices to reflect the current reduction of fuel prices and transportation fares.
That was because she noted that some traders had a penchant for increasing prices of foodstuffs at the various markets in Accra and not reducing them even if the government had reduced the cost of fuel and transportation fares.
Mrs Dapaah, who was accompanied by some staff from the ministry, further advised traders at the market to avoid preparing food under unhygienic conditions.
She commended the market women for maintaining good sanitation, which had made the market clean at the time of her visit.
The minister equally entreated the traders to avoid throwing rubbish indiscriminately when dustbins and refuse containers had been provided in the market.
Ofankor dump site
At the Ofankor Railway dump site, Mrs Dapaah expressed her displeasure about the inability of the Ga North Municipal Assembly to constantly empty the refuse containers when the sector ministry had distributed soil compactors and refuse containers to the beneficiary assemblies.
