Sunyani (B/A), July 24, GNA - Mr. Simon Opoku, Sunyani Municipal Environmental Health Officer on Thursday said his outfit in collaboration with authorities of the Sunyani Polytechnic have instituted a number of preventive measures to help check epidemic outbreak around the Municipal Landfill Site.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Sunyani, he explained that the measure followed complains by residents and students of the polytechnic who live close to the site about mosquito bites and bad odour.
Mr. Opoku said the initiative include quarterly spraying of the site with chemicals to minimise or control flies movement and planting of trees to serve as a buffer between the hostel and the site. The Municipal Environmental Health Officer said the assembly had no plans or intention to relocate the site. He said the site was a virgin land that was acquired in 1998 by the assembly to be used as its final waste disposal site as part of the Urban III World Bank-sponsored project for the discharge of both solid and liquid waste.
"The Environmental Impact Assessment was done. At the time, there were no settlements but with the passage of time people have tried to encroach and acquired land very close to the site", he stated. He disclosed plans by the assembly to obtain a compactor machine to break down the refuse rather than leaving it in the open and scattered, which creates public nuisance. Mr. Opoku said there were plans to engage the services of a recycling plant at the site He called on citizens to complement the efforts of the assembly in keeping good and sound environment health practices as the government alone cannot shoulder that responsibility. 23 July 09
