The government has begun preparations for the large-scale evacuation of accumulated waste at Jamestown in Accra to the Adipa Waste Management Centre, an engineered landfill facility at Nsawam in the Eastern Region.
The Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mahama Ayariga, announced the plan after a working visit to the facility on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, to assess its capacity to receive the accumulated waste from Jamestown.
The visit followed the Minister’s inspection on Tuesday of key waste management facilities in the Greater Accra Region, including the Jamestown and Achimota Waste Transfer Stations, the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant (ACARP), and the Kpone landfill site.
The inspections formed part of efforts by the Ministry to assess the country’s waste management infrastructure and identify immediate interventions to address the growing sanitation challenges in the capital.
Following his assessment of the waste situation at Jamestown, Hon. Ayariga disclosed that he had engaged the Ministers for Roads and Highways, Finance and Defence to develop an emergency evacuation plan.
“The four of us have put in place a plan to evacuate all that waste out of Jamestown. The issue is, where do you send it when you take it?”
According to the Minister, the government subsequently engaged Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies, who indicated that the Adipa landfill, operated by a subsidiary of the Group, was available to receive the waste.
“We called Dr. Siaw Agyepong and discussed it with him, and he indicated that the Adipa landfill site is available. So, if we are able to mobilise the trucks and the equipment, we can cart all the waste out from Jamestown and bring it to this location.”
Mr. Ayariga said the government would first undertake a technical assessment to determine the volume of waste accumulated at Jamestown, the distance to the Adipa landfill site and the number of trucks required for the evacuation.
He said the Director of Highways and his technical team would be involved in the assessment to determine the number of trips, fuel requirements and other logistical needs.
“If you calculate the volume of waste, then you know how many trucks you need. And if you calculate the distance and how long it will take, then you also know how many trips it will take to be able to evacuate the waste.”
The Roads and Highways Ministry is expected to support the exercise with some logistics, while the government is also engaging major construction companies in the Greater Accra and Eastern Regions to provide trucks and other heavy-duty machinery.
Mr. Ayariga said several contractors had already expressed their willingness to support the exercise voluntarily.
“We are engaging them and they have all expressed a willingness to support. In fact, in some cases, they have voluntarily offered to make their trucks and equipment available to assist government to evacuate the waste from there.”
He said the technical assessment would enable government to determine the number of trucks to mobilise and how long the evacuation would take.
Military to secure cleared area
The government also plans to deploy the military to secure the cleared areas at Jamestown after the waste has been evacuated.
Mr. Ayariga said the military would prevent renewed dumping, littering and encroachment by squatters after the exercise.
“After we’ve moved out of the Jamestown area, the military will take responsibility for protecting that area and making sure that we don’t bring back waste. And also squatters don’t stay on the land that we have cleared and create a mess again for us.”
He said the security arrangement was important to prevent the area from returning to its current state after the government had invested resources in clearing it.
The Minister also disclosed that the Finance Ministry had plans for the redevelopment of the area once the waste had been removed.
Selected Roads May be Closed
Mr. Ayariga said government was considering temporary closures of selected roads during the evacuation to prevent traffic congestion from delaying the waste trucks.
He said the exercise could be carried out over selected weekends, with specific routes closed to normal vehicular traffic to allow the trucks to move quickly.
“We may choose a certain Saturday and Sunday and say that on this Saturday and Sunday, we are going to be doing evacuation. Therefore, this route is closed to every vehicular movement.”
He said the waste trucks would operate under police protection to ensure that the exercise was completed within the shortest possible time.
“Only the trucks that are dislodging will be on the road, protected by the police, so that there can be speedy evacuation of the waste and we can finish within a short period of time.”
Adepa Landfill Ready to Receive Waste
The Operations Manager of the Waste Landfill Company Ltd, Richard Omane Mensah, said the Adepa facility had sufficient capacity to receive additional waste from Accra.
He said the landfill could receive more than 3,000 tonnes of waste daily and operates 24 hours a day to maximise its capacity.
“This site has the capacity to receive over 3,000 tons a day. And I’m happy to also let you know that we operate 24 hours a day.”
Mr Mensah said the facility currently receives between 1,500 and 1,600 tonnes of waste daily, with about 800 to 900 tonnes at night and 700 to 800 tonnes during the day.
“We are receiving over 800 to 900 tons of waste in the night alone. And then in the daytime we are receiving about 700 to 800 tons in the daytime.He said the facility was ready to receive waste evacuated from Jamestown.
“We are ready to receive all the waste that is coming, that will be evacuated to this over 200-acre land.”
Mr. Mensah explained that the landfill was being developed in cells, with new cells added progressively as demand increases.
He said the location outside the densely developed Accra metropolis provided sufficient space for long-term waste management.
“Because Accra is developed, there is no way you can get a big land as we have here. So we have to move away from the community. We can’t have a landfill within a very developed area.”
According to him, the facility could potentially serve the waste management needs of the area for between 35 and 50 years, depending on the volume of waste received.
Mr. Mensah, however, identified the condition of some access roads as a potential challenge to the evacuation exercise, warning that poor road conditions could slow down the movement of waste trucks.
“At a certain point, we have to slow down because the road was not secure. Now, that will slow the trucks. And given the volume of work involved…”
The government is expected to finalise the evacuation plan after the technical assessment, including determining the volume of waste, number of trucks required, routes, fuel requirements and duration of the exercise.