Gbawe, Mallam residents protest creation of refuse site in the area

Accra, Jan. 19, GNA - Residents of Gbawe, Mallam, Topbase and Mccarthy Hill and environs have appealed to President John Evans Atta Mills to personally intervene to prevent Zoom Lion, the environmental sanitation company, from creating a refuse dumpsite in the area. This was during a protest by a cross-section of the residents last Saturday when they had confirmation that the company intended to use a stone quarry in the area into a landfill site even though the area was now a residential area housing hundreds of people. Investigations by the Ghana News Agency have confirmed that the bad road to the quarry is being fev erishly rehabilitated for the company to have access to the site.

Mr Bismark Frimpong, self-employed, told GNA that unless the government intervened the company would bulldoze its way using the state security whose members were present during Saturday's protests. He said the environmental catastrophe would be too costly to be ignored and asked what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was doing about the attempt to turn a residential area into refuse site. Mr Frimpong also asked whether an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) had been made on the refuse site.

Mr Kofi Afriyie, another resident who operates a drinking spot in the area, said it was sad that in this era of environmental development a refuse site, with all its dangers, would be created in the area. Meanwhile the Greater Accra EPA said it was investigating the reports, since Zoom Lion had indicated that it was the Accra Metropolitan Assembly that gave them the approval to dump the refuse in a residential area.

The Greater Accra EPA has scheduled a meeting with the Waste Management Department of AMA to ascertain the authority on which they issued the permit.