By Kofi Akordor
The recent floods that hit Accra, the nation’s capital, following hours of torrential downpour woefully exposed Accra’s vulnerability as a result of inadequate waste disposal facilities, if we can seriously say there exists any. It became clear after the heavy rains that most of the accumulated water could not find their way through the drains to finally end probably in the sea, because the drains where they existed have been taken over by waste material of various descriptions.
This, apart from the human factor, which is our poor habit of indiscriminate waste disposal, is also the consequence of lack of modern facilities for solid waste treatment and disposal.
The disposal of solid waste has always been an intractable problem throughout Ghana. In the last few years, this problem has assumed increased prominence especially in urban areas mostly owing to the fact that officialdom, as well as the general public, is gradually awakening to the health and environmental threats that looms ahead if we fail to get our act together and tackle the problem as a matter of urgency.
Ghana, just like other developing countries, has been practising land filling as result of the country’s inability to invest huge sums of capital in modern waste treatment systems and machinery as seen in most developed economies. Landfills in Ghana are primarily open dumps and abandoned old quarry pits without proper leachate or gas recovery systems. These may be located in ecological or hydrologically sensitive areas.
Over the years, Metropolitan, Municipal and District budgetary allocations for operation and maintenance of these landfills have been inadequate. This makes it difficult for operators who are charged with the maintenance of the facilities to meet the standards required for safeguarding public health and environmental quality raising crucial concerns about whether not landfills constitute a blessing or a curse to the people they are meant to serve.
Owing to the rapid rate at which urban population is increasing with a corresponding increase in waste generation, waste management operators in Ghana have had to move from one site to another in rapid succession in the last decade as these disposal sites have very short lifespan. These former dump sites include Apenkwa, Mallam, Oblogo 1 & 2, Kwashiebu, Kokroko, Mallam SCC and Sarbah.
The operation of these landfills have come with very daunting challenges which persist up till today as people who reside close to these fills and the general public have put up fierce resistance in an effort to protect their right to live in healthy and hazard-free environments.
A lot of research conducted on landfills and their implications on public health paint a very gloomy picture for this practice. Landfills are said to contain toxic groundwater contaminants, including nitrate, ammonia, solvents, PCBs, and heavy metals. Once these substances reach groundwater, the contamination can be very damaging, particularly if it reaches drinking water wells.
Many substances can make their way into drinking water. These include, but are by no means limited to, bacteria, dissolved salts, heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, and pesticides. Any number of health problems may therefore result in serious diseases, including leukemia. Contaminated groundwater can also cause contaminated air in surrounding homes, and this too poses a variety of health risks.
Surface water run-off from landfills can also be contaminated and very dangerous. Run-off can make its way into nearby bodies of water or on to private property and depending on the chemicals it contains, it can then cause harmful erosion. In instances of closed landfills that have been improperly capped, direct contact with the toxic waste can occur as well. Another major danger from landfills is that decomposing waste produces methane, an odourless gas. Upon making its way into nearby basements, methane can cause explosions. Even the regular unpleasant odours from landfills can pose problems by causing eye irritation or respiratory ailments.
Residents living in the environs of the Sarbah Landfill site near Weija have on countless occasions threatened to forcefully close down the dump sites which currently serves almost the whole of Accra as a result of experiencing some of the problems mentioned above. A resident who spoke to this reporter sent a distress call to the government to come to the rescue of the people in the area, since in his view the state of the dump sites threatens the very life of the people in the area.
“Whenever it rains, running water from the dump sites runs through many of our homes depositing a lot of garbage in the process and the stench that accompanies it cannot be described,” he explained, adding that “even our livestock and pets die when they drink from the gutters that have been contaminated by the dark-coloured water draining from the site”.
Similar complaints of health risks and threats of forceful closure have come from residents around the Abokobi Landfill site, the only site that serves the eastern part of Accra and even supports the main one at Oblogo. The aggrieved residents have severally complained that the site has exceeded its capacity but is still being used hence the compounded nature of problems being posed by the site.
When reached for his comments on the landfill situation in Ghana currently, the acting head of Zoomlion’s Landfill Unit, Mr Sackey Lyndon, confirmed that the two final disposal sites had virtually reached their maximum limits and urgently require closure. “As a matter of urgency, we must find alternative means of disposing of our waste in the months ahead because the Abokobi dump sites has exceeded its capacity and the site at Oblogo cannot go beyond December,” Mr Sackey said.
From all indications, something urgent needs to be done in respect of the final disposal of our waste as it is increasingly becoming cumbersome to find land at an acceptable location to be used as a final disposal site. Besides, we need to do all we can as a nation that claims a middle income status to discourage land filling considering the gamut of troubles that are associated with the practice. This is definitely where the much talked-about Accra Compost and Recycling Plant fits into the equation.
The last time the President of the republic, Prof. J. E. A. Mills, visited the facility nearly two months ago, refreshing news of the plant coming in to solve the nation’s waste disposal problems was everywhere in the air. The facility was then said to be about 80 per cent complete and was billed to begin operations before the end of the year although not much has been heard thereafter.
As time waits for no man, it is imperative that the government and its private sector partners act quickly to propel the plant into operation in the nearest possible time so that we will not only have a place to send our waste to but also derive substantial value from it.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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