For more than thirty years after independence, waste disposal was not properly
coordinated by any form of authority. What happened was that within a locality a
common place was found where those living in that particular area dumped domestic
waste. In local parlance, the place became commonly known as "Borlaso" and that is
how it is still known in many parts of Ghana. Even the Town Council labourers
commonly known as "Tankaase," (a mispronunciation of "Town council") also dumped the
rubbish they collected from sweeping the market and other public places. The
garbage soon became like hills. Vultures hovered over the area picking clean bones.
The danger was that during rainy seasons they became havens for mosquitoes, worms
and other disease carrying insects. The heavy rains dragged big chunks of garbage
into wells and rivers which were major drinking sources for those living in the
locality. Apart from malaria, the inhabitants were also threathened with cholera.
Due to these problems, the city or town councils, now called Metropolitan
assemblies, intervened to prevent further deaths through malaria and cholera. The
city councils built public toilets at almost every strategic area within the cities.
Near every toilet, a place was created for a refuse dump. The councils had trucks to
collect the refuse at regular intervals.
As more toilets and refuse dumps were built, the councils began to lose control over
the collection of refuse. Most of their vehicles had broken down and the workers too
were losing interest due to low salaries. Refuse control became very critical during
the '90s. The NPP government took the decision to privatise toilet and refuse
collection. Many entrepreneurs joined in with their own trucks. The latest and the
biggest company was Zoomlion.
The strategy of Zoomlion was to sell big refuse bins to individuals, schools,
churches and companies. They went round with their trucks and collected garbage from
the bins placed at different points. Monthly fees are collected for the service.
The trucks then take the load of garbage to the outskirts of the city and deposited
them into a big hole dug for that purpose. When the hole becomes full is abandoned
and a new land found for waste disposal purposes. The first ground that was full was
abandoned for twenty years. When the second place too was full it was also abandoned
for twenty years. Zoomlion has been in Ghana for not more than four years, so it is
not yet known what they intend to do with the fallowed lands. Since the garbage is
not sorted out or seperated, it contains old batteries, fridges, television sets,
old electronic parts and plastic bags. All these are very dangerous for the
environment. For how long can this reckless use of land continue?
A lot of suggestions for safe disposal of garbage have been made by concerned
groups. Since Zoomlion is considered a giant group and leader in waste management
and environmental sanitation in Ghana it will be necessary for them to research into
effective waste disposal that will not be harmful to Ghanaians in the future. Since
we don't sort out garbage all types of waste are put together no matter how harmful
some of them are to the health of the people. There are different types of waste:
medical, biomedical and solid. These must be disposed of with extra care.
Some suggested the use of incinerators. Incineration is a waste treatment process
that involves the combustionn of organic substances contained in waste materials.
Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are described as
"thermal treatment". Incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash,
flue gas, and heat. Incineration with energy recovery is one of several
waste-to-energy technologies such as gasification, Plasma arc gasification,
pyrolysis and anaerobic digestion. Incineration may also be implemented without
energy and materials recovery.
However, there are problems of mass waste incineration that are harmful to the
workers, people living in the area and the environment due to pollution. Incineratin
plants are very expensive to build and to run. They require regular maintenance
which, in many cases, requires a complete shutdown of the processs.
The best altenative is by processing the waste to produce biogas and biomass. Biogas
typically refers to a gas produced by biological breakdown of organic material by
the plant to produce energy. Biogas is made up primarily of Methane and Carbon
Dioxide, but can also contain small quantities of Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Hydrogen
Sulphide, and even Oxygen. With processing, biogas can be cleaned up to make a
substitute for natural gas which can therefore be pumped to homes and businesses for
cooking and heating etc. Biomass, on the other hand, is a renewable source. It is a
biological material from living organisms from wood and waste.
These methods are better for the environment in terms of non-pollution and energy
production. Zoomlion is aware of this but probably the cost of research and the cost
of putting up the plant are preventing the company from taking the environmentally
healthy and safe option. The government has so far taken no steps towards strict
enforcement of rules concerning safe waste disposal methods by Zoomlion and other
waste disposal companies in Ghana. All Ghanaians must be involved in this debate.
You may be living abroad but your relatives and friends are in Ghana.
Written by Stephen Atta Owusu
Author:Dark Faces at Crossroads
Email: stephen.owusu@email.com
