The government is mobilising state and private-sector resources to address waste management challenges, with the accumulated refuse at Jamestown in Accra identified as an immediate priority.
The Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mahama Ayariga, disclosed this on Thursday, September 3, during a media briefing at the Jamestown Waste Transfer Station, as part of his ongoing assessment of the country’s waste management system.
The visit capped a three-day exercise that included inspections of the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant (ACARP), Jamestown and Achimota Waste Transfer Stations, and Kpone Landfill on Tuesday, September 1, as well as the Adipa Engineered Landfill at Nsawam in the Eastern Region on Wednesday, September 2.
Mr. Ayariga said Thursday’s exercise was intended to properly assess the scale of accumulated waste at Jamestown and provide the technical information required to guide government’s response.
“We see this from afar. We drive by, we really have no sense of the enormity of the challenge,” he stated.
He disclosed that government would bring together the Ministries of Local Government, Roads and Highways, Defence, Finance and Environment to mobilise the necessary resources for the exercise.
Contractors across the Greater Accra, Eastern and Central regions would also be engaged to provide trucks, excavators, bulldozers and loaders, particularly equipment that may currently be idle on construction sites.
The Minister noted that the state already has over 100 trucks and several pieces of heavy machinery that could be complemented by private-sector resources.
Technical teams from Zoomlion Ghana Limited are also deploying drones to survey the Jamestown site and determine the volume of accumulated waste.
The assessment will help establish the number of trucks and trips required, as well as the expected duration of the evacuation exercise.
He stressed that the operation would be guided by technical data, not estimates, enabling contractors to commit to specific evacuation quotas.
Beyond construction firms, the government plans to approach mining companies and major industries to contribute through corporate social responsibility programmes, either by deploying their own equipment or hiring contractors to remove agreed waste quantities, rather than making cash donations.
The intervention follows Wednesday’s government announcement that Jamestown’s waste could be transported to the Adipa engineered landfill at Nsawam, which has substantial remaining capacity.
However, Mr. Ayariga emphasised that the response was not merely about removal.
There is an urgent need to address the root causes of accumulation, improve community organisation and overhaul waste management systems to prevent recurrence, he reiterated.
He also outlined plans to redevelop the Jamestown area after clearance, without displacing residents, proposing low-cost and high-rise housing alongside roads, sanitation facilities and basic infrastructure, while keeping residents near their livelihoods.
The broader aim, he said, was to prove Ghana can confront longstanding sanitation challenges and tackle their underlying causes.
From a public health perspective, clearing the waste would free up resources currently spent on treating sanitation-related illnesses, redirecting them toward prevention.
The Bawku Central Member of Parliament disclosed that the Defence Ministry has already formed a support team and further decisions will follow President John Dramani Mahama’s return from international engagements.
The push builds on Hon. Ayariga’s earlier call for a comprehensive review of Ghana’s waste management chain, following his September 1 tour where he identified gaps in collection, transport, treatment, recycling, and disposal.
The current assessment, he said, will inform both the immediate evacuation and longer-term sector reforms.
While the operation’s scale and duration depend on ongoing technical evaluations, he affirmed the government’s resolve to marshal national capacity and partner with public and private entities to meet the challenge.
He also urged the public and media to support the national sanitation agenda by participating in the first-Saturday cleanup exercise and maintaining cleaner surroundings year-round.