GLOPA CALLS ON A.M.A TO CHANGE TACTICS ON WASTE MANAGEMENT IN ACCRA

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly has conceded to the call by the Global Peace Advocacy and Associates (GLOPA), an NGO that concerns itself with environmental issues, that the long held idea that sanitation maintenance in Ghana no more lies in waste collection but rather through a proper waste segregation and recycling system.

Speaking via phone on Joynews (MultiTV), Environmental Officer for the A.M.A, Samuel Akoto admitted that the A.M.A has not done enough by solely placing value on waste collection in the towns and city as the burden of waste management remains a challenge in the capital.

In his telephone interaction Mr. Akoto revealed that the A.M.A is in the known of the current challenges and are restlessly adopting measures to contain the situation and upgrade their environmental management tactics in order to ensure effective solutions.

However, Executive Director of GLOPA, Lambert Donkor challenged the A.M.A to change their former cause of solving the sanitation issues in the capital by liberalizing the waste management sector and mostly placing value on waste management in the country as a whole in order to make it hugely attractive to encourage a larger workforce to contribute to the quest, stating that "it's about time as a nation, we think and act beyond collection and dumping of waste".

On behalf of GLOPA, Mr. Donkor suggested several interventions to bring the situation under control. He indicated the need to place economic value on all properly segregated wastes to serve as incentive for proper segregation at source by households, traders, and the entire populace. He also recommended that waste management be liberalised to attract more investors into the sector so that Government and district assemblies could invest in the sector to generate extra revenue.

Mr. Donkor noted it is imperative that waste management organizations (both private and public) are encouraged to buy segregated waste from households and individuals to recycle for reuse, but in order to make that work government must act as a regulator and institute appropriate legal regimes and institutional frameworks for efficient operation of the sector. He believes empowered and strengthened regulatory institutions in the sector would enhance effective enforcement of such laws.

He concluded saying, under these modern, innovative, effective and more sustainable structure of Waste Segregation and Recycling System, individuals and households would be forced voluntarily to provide better means of collection since they shall earn money for well segregated waste which has potential to create sustainable jobs in the sector thereby generating revenue for government instead of government spending taxes on investments in the sector.

#(Photo By GLOPA, taken at Lapaz-Accra)