Mini-waste transfer station for Accra
Waste Landfills Limited, managers of the Nsumia landfill site at Nsawam, has constructed a mini-waste transfer station in Accra.
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The new transfer station is located at Britannia at Kokomlemle, a suburb of Accra. Communities such as Circle, Avenor and Kokomlemle are to benefit from the facility, which is expected to start functioning by the end of this month.
The facility would reduce the long distances waste-carrying trucks travel from the city centre to dump their refuse following the closure of the Achimota landfill site in Accra.
Transfer station
The construction of the mini transfer site followed a request by the government in February this year for transfer stations to be sited in strategic locations in the city to make it easier to move refuse from the city to the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant situated at Adzen Kotoku.
Mini-waste transfer stations are intended as medium-term solution to solid waste management issues bedevilling the city.
A transfer station is a temporary site for dumping and processing of solid waste and is essentially necessary for communities without easy access to landfill sites.
The facility helps with the management of community waste before it is transferred to a disposal point or compost plant.
Effectiveness
The Project Engineer of Waste Landfills Limited, Mr Francis Mensah Adzakpa-Akoto, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the waste transfer station was a support to a pilot project aimed at preventing cholera in Accra.
He said the site comprised a holding bay, a fence, a security gate, caretakers’ office and a tricycle climbing ramp.
He said his expectation was that about 70 tonnes of waste would be channelled from the station to the main landfill site at Nsawam, when the station becomes operational.
He said he considered it likely that the number of trips to the Nsumia landfill site by refuse trucks and tricyles would triple in due course.
He added that the transfer station would bring about efficiency and cost effectiveness in solid waste management in the city.
According to Mr Adzakpa-Akoto, "waste gathered at the site would be lifted daily such that no waste would be left at the holding bay and the place would be left clean".
He said he was hopeful that the site would be replicated in other densely populated communities in order to reduce the spread of cholera and other such diseases.