Kpone residents up in arms over infectious landfill site

Residents of Kpone in the Greater Accra Region are up in arms with city authorities over pollution from another dumpsite in the area after the main landfill was decommissioned in June.
The residents say leachate from the new dumpsite, few meters from the decommissioned one, coupled with sewage from companies along the stretch continues to pollute their water bodies.
They told 3news.com their fears have heightened due to dumping of infectious Covid-19 waste there.
Sanitation minister, Cecilia Dapaah in June announced a contract had been awarded to Zoomlion Ghana Limited to re-engineer the main Kpone landfill.
“The company is homegrown, tested and tried. We are engaging them to do the re-engineering of this place into a recreational facility. The company would source its workforce from here,’’ the minister told pressmen at the decommissioning event.
She said, “the company is willing to take on inputs from locals and other experts on this project,” adding it would be a facility not seen anywhere in Ghana before.
The area which served as dumping ground for tonnes of waste from the Greater Accra Region for many decades was shutdown, after residents agitated over the health challenge it posed.
Metropolitan Chief Executive of Accra, Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah, told pressmen earlier this year during a visit to the area, only waste from the Kpone Katamanso Municipality was to be dumped at the new site.
“The sanitation ministry has taken a decision that all waste from Accra are directed to Adepa and Nsumia landfills. This is reserved only for people from Kpone including Ashaiman and Tema,” he said.
Two months on, the residents say not much has changed.
“Several trucks continue to dump waste here daily. It is gradually becoming like the decommissioned one,” one resident Nana Duncan told 3news.com.
He said, “the possibility of Covid-19 waste being dumped on the landfill could put the residents in serious danger. People work here, they live here, and we are all at risk.”
Leachate from the dumpsite and sewage from companies here continue to contaminate the Sega lagoon which flows into the sea.
“The lagoon is now black. All aquatic life is gone. No fish due to the contamination from the landfill.”
“Other companies dotted along the stretch channel their waste into drains that end up in this lagoon,” another resident Mershack Agyeman said.
Fisher folks say their catch has been affected too. Ago, is one of them.
“The sea is polluted with all the waste from the landfill. We barely get a good catch these days. We need some urgent solution.”
Authorities at the Kpone Municipal Assembly and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly say they would respond to the concerns of the residents at a later date.
By Komla Adom|3news.com|Ghana