AMA gives up on proposed Kwabenya landfill site
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has decided to discontinue the planned construction of a landfill site at Kwabenya in Accra because of protests by residents and encroachment on the site.
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Since acquiring the 364-acre land in 2007, the city authorities have only been able to construct a road that leads to the proposed landfill site.
The Project Coordinator of the AMA, Mr Graham Owusu Sarbah, who made this known at the Judgement Debt Commission (JDC) sitting in Accra last Thursday, said anytime the AMA decided to start work at the site, the residents demonstrated and that made it difficult for the work to go on.
He recalled that the residents of Kwabenya threw stones at the convoy of the late former Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, when he inspected the site in 2008.
Mr Sarbah said the AMA was forced, under the circumstances, to engage a consultant to talk to the people and get their understanding for the project to start but that was not successful.
The commission had invited Mr Sarbah following a petition it had received from one of the landowners at Kwabenya over the non-payment of compensation to her.
Encroachment
Mr Sarbah told the commission that the delay in the start of construction work on the landfill site made it possible for people to encroach on all the land.
The project coordinator said when the AMA Chief Executive, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, visited the site in 2010, he realised that people had taken over all the land.
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Mr Sarbah said the AMA boss felt that it was better to discontinue with the landfill project at Kwabenya and look for another site.
Consequently, he said, the AMA wrote a letter, dated September 14, 2012, to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to the effect that the assembly wanted to discontinue with the construction of the Kwabenya landfill.
Compensation
Mr Sarbah said a committee was set up to work on compensation for the proposed landfill site but no compensation was paid. He also indicated that people continued to go to the AMA demanding compensation.
He said the land still stood in the name of the state, since the Executive Instrument for its acquisition was not revoked.
Sole Commissioner
The Sole Commissioner of the JDC, Mr Justice Yaw Apau, said it was not fair for the city authorities to sit by and allow people to build on state lands before going to demolish the houses.
“It is not fair to sit by for people to build all over and go and demolish the buildings,” he said.
At its sitting last Wednesday, Justice Apau had asked the government to consider giving back the land at Kwabenya to its original owners to save the state from incurring judgement debts.