The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) is considering shutting down access to the Oti landfill site to other municipalities and districts in the Ashanti region to contain a looming sanitation crisis in the metropolis.
According to the assembly, the main waste collection site currently serving over four municipalities in the region is nearing its full capacity.
The overstretched facility has since thrown the city into an unhygienic scene with filth engulfing major market centres and communities as waste collectors are stranded offloading their trucks of solid waste.
In the past weeks, many commercial small-scale waste collectors in the Greater Kumasi metropolis have endured hours at the main waste collection point, the Oti Landfill site.
Long, winding queues of tricycles operating in the metropolis were seen in a desperate quest to offload solid waste to the site.
The situation, according to the waste collectors, pushes them into a strenuous condition and affects their productive hours.
The Oti Landfill site receives solid waste from communities within the Kumasi metropolis and at least four districts and municipalities within the Ashanti Region, including Ejisu, Mamponteng and other adjoining areas.
Consequently, the facility is handling waste levels of between 2,000 and 3,000 tons daily above its designed capacity.
According to the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, which runs the facility, the landfill site risks closure in the coming months as it warns that the facility is reaching its full capacity.
Kumasi mayor, Richard Ofori Agyeman-Boadi, says the assembly is burdened in managing the facility with its meagre financial resources.
“KMA has had to bear the responsibility of managing the waste of about 13 municipalities with our resources. We are grappling with a lot of difficulties. Previously, we had announced we were going to close down within 18 months.
“But if nothing is done urgently about it, within the next three months, we are likely to shut down our final disposal site and stop every assembly within greater Kumasi from dumping their refuse. They have to look for places,” he cautioned.
The assembly is racing against time to find funds to set up additional cell facilities to contain waste dumped at the Oti Landfill site.
The mayor explains that the Kumasi Compost and Recycling Plant (KCRP), which complements filth uptake, is presently financially constrained to run their daily operation as they have been cut off from the national grid.
Mr Agyeman-Boadi says the government owes the KCRP four years of arrears, as he assured of engaging high-level government officials to settle the debt.
Meanwhile, the KMA says persons found dumping refuse at roundabouts, road medians and other unauthorised spaces commit a criminal offence, as it makes provisions of 1000 litre dustbins to collect waste at the market centres.
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