Residents protests delays in handing over Oti Landfill site to Asokwa Assembly

Some residents near the Oti landfill site in the Asokwa Municipality (ASKMA) in Kumasi on Monday morning blocked the entrance to the landfill site arguing that they want the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) to speed up the process of transferring its management of the site to the Asokwa Municipal Assembly.

The residents claimed the KMA has paid deaf ears to their plight and were asking that since the community now belonged to a new Asokwa Assembly, the management of the landfill site should be handed to them to it to enable the new assembly respond to their needs.

The residents claimed that the KMA and the management of the site have reneged on the agreement with the residents to fumigate the site regularly to prevent the foul odour from engulfing the communities in the area.

Led by the assembly member for Kuwait-Oti-Aprabo Electoral Area, Mr Elliot Ofosu Barnor who is also the presiding member for ASKMA, the demonstrators wore red and black arm bands and picketed at the entrance to the site prevented waste trucks and tricycles from accessing the place to dump waste.

The assembly member of the area, Mr Barnor said the residents have made several complaints to the KMA and the Regional Coordinating Council on the negative effects of the landfill on the communities.

According to him, when word got out about the impending demonstration, officers from the KMA came to Oti on Sunday to fumigate some houses "but that is not going to stop us from demanding that the right thing be done. "

He said the continued management of the site by the KMA was denying the residents the necessary support from the ASKMA as the new assembly in which the site is located has control over it.