Accra and Kumasi generate more than 4,000 tonnes of waste daily – Report

Waste management is a major public health challenge for Ghana. Just Accra and Kumasi generate more than 4,000 tonnes of waste daily, a GNA report cites Mr Isaac Monney, a lecturer at the Department of Environmental Health and Sanitation of the University of Education, Winneba as saying.

Numerous researches have pointed principally to the lack of resources and weak institutional capabilities but there seems to be some disregarded factors that also contribute substantially to the status quo, he said.

According to the report, Mr Monney said wrong perception about solid waste, poverty and ignorance, white paper policies, low level of entrepreneurs in management of waste and non-regulation of waste management companies contribute to the waste problem

Additionally, public attitude, huge gaps between research and policy development, and loopholes in some laudable waste management strategies are factors compounding waste management approaches, he said.

A waste management fund which has been created to generate funds to finance waste management activities is not operational.

Even though, the government has received GH¢44.3 million from the waste management fund between 2011 and 2014, the money can’t be disbursed to service providers to do the job of managing waste, because the regulations to govern the fund’s operations are not ready.

Meanwhile, Professor Ernest Yanful of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has reportedly projected that Ghana would soon generate 25,000 metric tonnes of waste daily as population increases.

By Emmanuel Odonkor