Benjamin Kpodo
The Deputy Ranking Member on Local Government in Parliament, Benjamin Kpodo, has stated that the Ghc30 landfill tipping fee paid by government to service providers does not conform with world standards and therefore described Ghana’s situation as woefully inadequate.
According to him, the amount paid is nothing to write home about and therefore can not help solve the myriad of challenges confronting the sanitation sector.
The MP for Ho Central made this statement on Thursday in Kumasi during a working visit by the Parliamentary Select Committees of Parliament on Local government, Environment, Science and Technology, Finance, Works and Housing to the Kumasi Compost and Recycling Plant (KCARP) a subsidiary of Zoomlion and the Jospong Group of Companies.
“ The Ghc30.00 is woefully inadequate because in Europe it is 35 Euros even though it’s the same equipment the service providers use in doing the work. This means Ghc30.00 can not just do the work here on Ghana”. He therefore called on government to consider adjusting the tipping fees to march with world standards to enable the service providers manage the waste for the benefit of the people.
He said if government doest adjust the cost upwards, the phenomenon is going to push the Service Providers into more debt going forward.
The Member of Parliament stressed that it is the reason Parliament is proposing that the Pollution and Sanitation Levy should be dedicated towards waste management effort and nothing else.
He also emphasized that waste management at the assembly level has not been successful due to lack of funding adding that this necessitated Parliament to approve the Sanitation levy in the last budget.
“That is parliament we approved the levy to enable those companies who are interested to get into the venture get funding so that the approach will change for our benefit”, the Ho Central MP indicated.
He therefore called for the need for waste management to be put into economic benefit for Ghanaians through what he termed modernized waste management as opposed to the traditional waste management systems.
On his part, the Mayor of Kumasi Hon. Osei Asibbey Antwi was particularly happy about the project which he said has solved a long term sanitation challenge in the Metropolis.
He commended the MPs for the visit and assured them of his commitment to ensure that sanitation challenges in the metropolis becomes a thing of the past.
The team also visited the Oti Landfill site at Asokwa in the Asokwa municipality of the Ashanti Region where works of decommissioning was steadily in progress .