Second phase of Kwabenya Landfill Site to start soon - AMA

Accra (Greater Accra) - The Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has dismissed suggestions that the Kwabenya Landfill Project has been abandoned and said preparations are underway to start the second phase.

Mr Solomon Ofei Darko told the GNA in an interview in Accra that the second phase, which involved the lining of the pit with clay to prevent leachate, seepage of liquid discharge from the waste into the underlying soil, would begin soon. He said the AMA had not abandoned the project as being alleged in certain circles.

"We only had to wait a while because there is a gap between the first phase and the second phase of the project," he said. "The government also had to source for funding for the second phase within that time frame," he added. Mr Darko said the contractors had to demobilise and pack their machinery out of the site because the second phase could be awarded to another contractor who might win the bid.

He said Taysec had made proposal to the AMA to allow it to continue with the second phase of the project. Taysec has, therefore, gone ahead to make the necessary arrangements for a financier from Britain to finance the second phase.

The financiers are yet to sign the agreement with the Government through the Ministry of Finance, Mr Darko said, adding, "Everything is ready for the financiers to finalise the agreement with the government."

The AMA boss said structures within the project site and those around the buffer zone would qualify for compensation. "Only those with proper documents would be compensated." He said people were still building so as to get compensation adding that this was not possible.

Mr Darko said the modalities involving the land acquisition, payment of compensation and the provision of social amenities for the Kwabenya township were receiving due attention. In order to get the maximum co-operation from the residents around the landfill project, a community sensitisation programme was currently going on in the township through a consultant -CEDEP - hired for the job, Mr Darko said.

"We've told the Town and Country Planning Department to put a freeze on the land, but it has been difficult to police the land day and night." Experts have described the Kwabenya Landfill Project as the first modern sanitary landfill ever to be constructed in Ghana.

The first phase, which started in July 2001 and ended in January 2002, involved the construction of access roads, a culvert and storm drains. Construction works at the site came to a halt following the evacuation of the site by the first contractor, Taysec. The residents attributed that to their petition to the British High Commission to get Taysec off the site.

The contractor packed away all its tools and equipment after completing the first phase involving the construction of a storm culvert and a catch water drain giving the impression that work on the site had come to a halt.

When the GNA visited the site, it found that with the onset of the rains the culvert had been filled with a substantial amount of sand due to erosion and deposits from the nearby Odartey stream. The Odartey stream, which was dry due to weather conditions during the first phase of construction, had overflowed its banks filling the culvert.

The residents of Agyemankata, the immediate community of the landfill site, who are still putting up structures, have, however, vowed to continue to oppose the siting of a landfill in the area saying they would fight it to death. "We are resolved not to allow the dumping of waste here," Mr Isaac Amo

Smith, who spoke on behalf of the residents, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview.

"We will rather die than to allow the project to take over our lands," he said. Meanwhile, sources close to CEDEP, the consultants for the Education programme, say they were chased out of Agyemankata community with threats on their life.

Mr Elvis Adade, a member of the education team, who spoke to the GNA said they have, however, completed the education and sensitisation programme at the

Kwabenya Township. The education was done through churches, community groups, chiefs and elders.