Mini-solid waste transfer system for Kokomlemle
The Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, has asked metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) to be innovative while promoting environmental cleanliness in their respective assemblies.
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He said it was imperative for the assemblies to introduce modern methods of promoting sanitary conditions to complement the conventional methods such as collecting garbage from gutters.
Mr Amissah-Arthur made the call when he addressed journalists after inspecting a mini-solid waste transfer station at Kokomlemle in Accra on Tuesday.
Known as the Kokomlemle/Britania Mini Waste Transfer Station, the facility manages 46 tonnes of refuse daily. It was developed by Waste Landfills Company Limited, a waste management company, with support from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).
Giving his impressions about the facility, the Vice-President asked the AMA to endeavour to replicate the facility in other parts of Accra and stressed the need for MMDCEs to consider operating such a facility in their districts.
He said the cholera outbreak in Accra last year brought to the fore the need for the AMA to establish such facilities throughout the city to dispose of waste and improve sanitation.
The Vice-President was accompanied by the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Alhaji Collins Dauda, and the AMA Chief Executive, Dr Alfred Vanderpuije.
Background
Dr Vanderpuije, who gave a brief account of how the facility started, recalled when the Vice-President visited the offices of the AMA in October last year on his tour of some areas in the metropolis noted for their insanitary conditions.
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The tour took Mr Amissah-Arthur to Agbogbloshie where they cleared a heap of refuse.
Dr Vanderpuije said it was after that exercise that the AMA entered into a partnership with Waste Landfills Company Limited for the facility to be put up at Kokomlemle.
That served as the precursor for the government’s introduction of the National Sanitation Day, which is observed on the first Saturday of every month.
Waste Transfer Station
It is a facility where solid waste is unloaded from smaller trucks into larger vehicles to be transported to a final disposal site. The facility also serves as a link between a community’s solid waste programme and a landfill facility.
Among the benefits of mini-transfer stations is an improvement in waste collection. It also assists in the transportation of waste from the point of collection to distant landfills.
Writer’s email: sebastian.syme4@gmail.com