The Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA), made up of refuse collectors and other sanitation service providers, has appealed to the government to settle outstanding payments owed to waste management contractors by Friday, November 7, this year, to save them from total shutdown nationwide.
The Executive Secretary of ESPA, Ama Ofori Antwi, said at a press conference in Accra yesterday that members of the association were on the verge of total shutdown due to the severe operational and financial distress confronting the waste management sector.
She explained that most service providers, including waste collectors, transporters and treatment facility operators, were struggling to sustain operations because the fees they received from the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) could not cover the costs of the service rendered.
At the same time, they were confronted with long delays in payments for services rendered for the past two to three years.
“Our members have borrowed from banks, creditors, and suppliers to keep their operations running, but those supports have now ceased, and in many cases, they are being threatened with court actions,” Ms Antwi said.
The ESPA Executive Secretary explained that the rates did not reflect the real cost of service delivery, making their operations economically unsustainable.
She warned that if the government failed to release the funds by the stated deadline, service providers would have no option but to suspend waste collection nationwide, a situation that could trigger a sanitation emergency and lead to the outbreak of diseases such as cholera, typhoid and malaria.
Ms Antwi added that the situation had been compounded by the lack of access to functional treatment and disposal sites, many of which had deteriorated due to poor maintenance.
“As a result, waste collection and transportation activities have become highly inefficient, costly and unprofitable for service providers, threatening the overall sustainability of Ghana’s waste management system,” Ms Antwi stated.
The ESPA Executive Secretary could not, however, provide any exact figure being what the government owed its members, arguing that the government owed varying debts to different service providers, with each player owed something.
Sanitation Day
The executive secretary said ESPA commended and fully supported President John Dramani Mahama for the relaunch of the National Sanitation Day and public endorsement of a comprehensive sanitation reset agenda, aimed at eliminating insanitary conditions, preventing disease outbreaks, and halting environmental degradation.
However, the country’s waste management sector faced an alarming state of operational and financial distress.
“We recognise the President’s speech as a reaffirmation of government’s unwavering commitment to a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable Ghana,” she said.
Challenges
Ms Antwi explained that several waste management facilities, including landfill sites, solid waste treatment plants and wastewater treatment facilities, were struggling to remain functional due to rising costs of fuel, electricity, labour and maintenance.
She added that the situation had also been worsened by inadequate revenue inflows and high energy tariffs, warning that without immediate intervention, years of progress made in improving urban sanitation could be reversed.
ESPA, Ms Antwi said, had engaged the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs and relevant parliamentary committees but those engagements had yielded little results.
The association, therefore, appealed to the Ministry of Finance to expedite the release of the pending payments.
Policy review
Aside from the payment of arrears, ESPA also called for a review of the Sanitation and Pollution Levy as a dedicated fund to support and sustain waste management infrastructure.
ESPA is also calling on MMDAs to fix fees that would ensure full cost recovery during their annual fee-fixing resolutions to ensure the sustainability of waste collection operations.
“MMDAs should adopt full cost recovery rates that cover operational expenses, maintenance and other relevant costs, while balancing social needs,” Mr Antwi stated.
She cautioned that if the current situation persisted, several landfill and treatment facilities across the country might face imminent shutdown, which would disrupt waste collection services, threaten thousands of jobs, cause widespread environmental degradation with attendant health crisis, while derailing the country’s remarkable progress in sanitation and environmental protection.
“We are calling on government to act decisively not only to rescue the sector from collapse but to safeguard public health, protect the environment and preserve the country’s progress in sanitation,” she added.
