Ho Municipal Assembly in S.O.S over waste disposal site

    Ho, May 30, (Gaitu/Mensah), GNA-Time is running out on the Ho Municipal Assembly to find alternative disposal sites for its liquid and solid wastes and corpses to avert a major epidemic.
    This followed the declaration of existing sites and public cemetery as no-go-areas to the Assembly by landowners.
    Those who have offered to bail out the Assembly by offering temporary disposal sites have also raised red flags.
    Mr Isaac Kodobisah, the Municipal Chief Executive expressed concern about the situation when he inaugurated Unit Committees in the Municipal Area.
      He said the landowners often chased away workers who went to dispose of waste at the sites telling them “to take the waste and corpses to the MCE’s office.”
.    Mr Kodobisah said the landowners asserted that government has not paid   compensation on the land.
    “Why now?  He asked.
    He therefore appealed to chiefs and opinion leaders to help the Assembly overcome the challenge to prevent a major catastrophe.
    Some land agents told the GNA that the rising value of lands in and around the municipality, especially at Mile 48 where the disposal sites and cemetery are located could account for the situation.
    The area which used to be remote from Ho off the Ho-Aflao highway is said to have become a sprawling community.
   Some residents also told the GNA that the Ho Municipality was witnessing a phenomenal expansion with increasing developmental challenges including waste disposal and burial places.
   They said the solution to the problem lay in waste recycling and cremation of corpses because it was going to be difficult to get large tracts of land as before for waste disposal.
    Mr Anthony Adzomani, Volta Regional Manager of Zoomlion Waste Management Company said the Company and the Assembly have been negotiating with the landowners over the problem.
   He said about 150 metric tonnes of solid waste are generated in Ho daily.
   Mr Adzomani said indications were that communities and landowners were no longer in the mood to give land for waste disposal.
   He said even where waste is recycled there would still be some waste to dispose of.
    Mr Adzomani said the attitude of individuals and the public in the generation and management of waste in the municipality needed to change.
    He said the general attitude was to create as much waste for the Zoomlion and the Municipal Assembly to manage.
GNA
WG
30 May 2011