Residents of Kpone and its surrounding communities living close to the decommissioned Kpone landfill in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality, in the Greater Accra Region, have expressed concern over the dire health consequences the abandoned site is posing to them.
The site, about ten meters away from the main road to Kpone, off the Tema-Aflao stretch, has become a haven for mosquitoes and other dangerous insects that survive on filth.
When the stench from the site becomes pungent, most parts of Kpone are invaded by huge houseflies. The pungent stench can sometimes be smelt from about a thousand meters from the abandoned landfill, especially after a heavy downpour.
Although the landfill had been decommissioned, refuse continue to be dumped at the site, which has a dire effect on business owners around the around.
Some of the business owners, who spoke to The Chronicle said they have lost many international partnerships and investments due to the health-threatening environment.
“Most of us here have lost foreign investments because of this landfill. They (foreign investors) will be very interested in doing business or having a partnership with us, but when they come and see the landfill close to our businesses, they go away and we never hear from them again,” a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) lamented.
In 2023, Mrs Cecilia Abena Dapaah, then the Minister for Water and Sanitation, announced the closure of the land-fill site and its subsequent re-engineering into a recreational centre. Immediately, a huge artificial green carpet was spread to cover the landfill.
Sadly, garbage trucks and dustbin tricycles from Accra, Ashaiman and Tema still dump refuse at the site.
A resident recalled that: “The Minister (Mrs Dapaah) told us that the re-engineering of the landfill into a recreational centre would commence very soon and the dumping of refuse would be relocated to a different place.
“But as we speak, the Contractor is not on site and nothing is being done as promised by the Minister. The facility has rather become too dangerous for those of us residing around it.”
Another resident recalled what Cecilia Abena Dapaah told the people and the traditional authorities that the project would be completed by August 2023 and would be turned into a recreational park for tourism.
After the decommissioning of the site, a temporary site was allocated for dumping and another resident told The Chronicle, “Look at the mountain from afar. That is a mountain of refuse at the temporary site, which is now taller than the decommissioned engineered landfill.’
The refuse dump is so tall that trucks and tricycles, popularly known as ‘aboboyaa’, struggle to climb to the peak to discharge garbage.
Samuel Pinto, a tricycle rider, told The Chronicle that he and his colleague riders “fight with our clutches to make it to the top of the refuse mountain. When we burn our clutches during the fight to climb this tall garbage mountain, we discharge the refuse at un-recommended places.
“We think it’s time authorities got us a new place because this temporary site is full.”
Located in front of the temporary landfill is a Goil Filling Station and the Supervisor said the station is unable to open its mart and restaurant because of the flies and stench from the dumpsite.
Opposite the landfill is a container terminal built by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, which is supposed to handle transit cargoes. And even before it starts full operation, people have started complaining about the inconvenience caused by the landfill.
When this paper contacted the Municipal Chief Executive of the Kpone Katamanso Assembly, Samuel Okoe Amanquah, he noted that the decommissioning and re-engineering of the landfill was being handled by Zoomlion, therefore, he declined to comment further.
However, Mr Amanquah indicated that a site for a new landfill had been secured at Shai Hills, in the Shai-Osudoku District, and to him, work would soon begin.
Mr Amanquah, the MCE and the 2024 Parliamentary candidate for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the Kpone-Katamanso Constituency, blamed some of the companies for establishing their businesses close to the landfill.
“Some of these companies came to meet the landfill, yet agreed to establish their businesses closer to it. I don’t know why they are now complaining, as if they didn’t know the consequences of establishing their businesses there. We have engaged some of them and we will continue to engage them on the way forward,” he said.
Mr Amanquah explained that the landfill problem was huge and could not be solved within a short time by any government, adding “It’ll take a long time for this problem to be solved. No government can solve this landfill problem within a short period. We are working on solving it, but it won’t be done overnight.”
