Waste should be an asset not a curse - Minister

Mr Michael Yaw Gyato, the Deputy Minister of Sanitation, has called on the Ga South Municipal Assembly to stop the indiscriminate creation of refuse dumping sites in the Municipality.

He said such illegal dumping sites created sanitation and environmental hazards as well as polluted the river bodies in the area.

The Minister gave this advice when he toured the Old Weija Landfill Site with the media.

He said the owners of those landfill sites often covered them with sand and sold them to people to build on, which turned to block waterways and caused floods whenever it rained.

Mr Gyato said Ministry would help stop the illegal dumping of refuse, especially those that prevented the rivers from flowing freely.

He urged the operators of the Old Weija Refuse Site to stop their activities and move their equipment to the new transfer station at Mallam.

He said a joint team of Military and Police would be guarding the Old Weija Refuse Site to prevent illegal dumping and arrest individuals or commercial operators, particularly those using tricycles, and confiscate their equipment to serve as a deterrent to others.

Mr Gyato, addressing the media, said the huge refuse at the area was as dangerous as galamsey as it could cause diseases in the communities.

He urged the media to join hands with the Ministry to educate the public on attitudinal change and called on stakeholders to help clear the refuse in order to maintain a clean environment for healthy living.

The Minister and his entourage later visited the new transfer station at Mallam, which had sophisticated equipment that could be used to compress the waste.

He said approved chemicals would be used in fumigation so as to prevent the spread of diseases.

Mr Joseph Nyarni Stephen, the Municipal Chief Executive of Ga South, said he had earlier warned the caretaker of the Old Weija Dumping Site to stop allowing the tricycles to dump refuse there but added; “We found out that he had not stopped and is still collecting monies from them when we visited there yesterday”.