Kumasi, Aug 10, GNA - Mr. Samuel Sarpong, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) Chief Executive (MCE), has said waste management was the biggest challenge faced by the city's authority. With a population of about two million, Kumasi generates an average of 1,500 tonnes of solid waste daily and out of this the KMA is only able to collect about 1,300 tonnes, leaving the remaining 200 tonnes uncared for.

Mr. Sarpong was speaking at the launch of Ghana Innovations Marketplace (GIM), a competition that seeks innovative and strategic solutions to the country's growing problem of solid waste management. The World Bank, acting in concert with the government and other development partners, is organizing the competition to stimulate over 500 small-scale actors to generate innovative and sustainable project ideas.

He said it cost an average of GH¢720,000 to collect and dispose of waste in the metropolis every month, an amount, that was far in excess of the KMA's budget.

It was to help salvage the situation that the assembly has introduced a partial cost recovery scheme dubbed, "Kumasi City-wide Solid Waste Management Levy Scheme."

"This involves the collection of subsidized user fees from service beneficiaries for house-to-house and communal collection in an attempt to create a sustainable system," he said.

Mr Sarpong mentioned inadequate household bins and communal containers and non payment of bills as problems undermining the scheme. Other challenges were the lack of environmentally acceptable leach treatment and disposal and the negative impact of intense trading activities on the streets and pavements within the Central Business District (CBD), resulting in the generation of large quantities of refuse.