THE Minister of Environment, Science & Technology, Professor Dominic Kwaku Fobih has given a two-month ultimatum to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to take steps to stop the dumping of refuse at the Mallam refuse dump in Accra.
He has, consequently, asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to write and caution the AMA to wind-up its activities at the site by the end of April.
Professor Fobih, who gave the order when he toured the site yesterday to familiarise himself with activities there, expressed concern about the health hazard that the refuse dump poses to the people staying around the site and said the ministry, in collaboration with the EPA, will take legal action against the AMA if it does not comply with the order.
Professor Fobih, who was accompanied by Dr P. C. Acquah, Executive Director of EPA, and other officials of the ministry and EPA, earlier toured the premises of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Ghana Ltd, the Shangri La Hotel, Golden Tulip Hotel and the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to ascertain their waste management programmes.
Dr Acquah urged the AMA authorities to submit their action plan on the new site, where they will dump the refuse to the EPA for advice and guidelines on how to maintain the site efficiently in order not to pose health hazard.
At the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Professor Fobih suggested that the hospital authorities should commercialise the hospital’s incinerators which incinerate amputated limbs, placentas and other blood stained waste from theatres.
This, he said, will generate income for the hospital and will prevent private clinics and hospitals from disposing of these human waste indiscriminately.
“Whilst the EPA will be researching into how to dispose of this human waste from hospitals, we should be making arrangements to commercialise the hospital’s incinerators so that other hospitals can use it for a fee,” he said.
Responding to the Minister’s suggestion, Dr Henry A. Holdbrook-Smith, Chief Executive of the hospital, said the authorities have already discussed the commercialisation of the hospital’s incinerators and other facilities.
He said the problem, however, is that the hospital has only two incinerators which are just adequate for the hospital, and noted that it will need another one to make commercialisation feasible.
Dr Holdbrook-Smith, who conducted the Minister and his team round the hospital, said liquid waste from the hospital has been connected to the Accra Main Water and Sewerage line near the Korle-Lagoon.
He said waste from the hospital is collected in dustbins lined with polythene bags at the generating points and are stored in the polythene bags until close of works when they are disposed off.
He said the polythene bags are tied at the top and sent to the general transit point behind the hospital’s drug manufacturing unit where they are collected by the City and Country Waste Limited.
At the Coca-Cola Bottling Company Ltd, Mr Segun Ogunsanya, General Manager of the company, said the company has built a new waste treatment plant at the cost of $1 million.
On his part, Mr Thom Sheriff, General Manager of Golden Tulip Hotel, said since the opening of the hotel almost 10 years ago, it had a good sewage plant in place, but after some time the capacity of the sewage plant became too small.
He said the hotel has now built a mechanical sewage plant at the cost $165,000 which meets the standards of the EPA.
