Madam Cecilia Dapaah, the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources says de-commission and re-engineering works are progressing steadily on the Kpone and Oti landfills.

She noted that following Cabinet’s approval for decommission and re-engineering of the Kpone and Oti Landfill sites, the Ministry had engaged Zoomlion Ghana Limited to undertake the decommissioning and re-engineering work at the two sites.

The Minister said the Ministry had also engaged EAP Consult Limited, a local Engineering firm as Consultants to supervise the project for quality assurance.

Madam Dapaah said this on Wednesday in Accra when she took her turn at the Meet the Press Series to give an update on her Ministry’s activities.

She said the Ministry had launched a Street Litter Bin programme and already deployed 5,100 litter bins to control public littering in selected Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ashanti, Central, Greater Accra, Northern, Oti, Volta and Western Regions.

She said an additional 3,000 bins were currently being deployed out of, which 600 had been donated to the Ministry of Defence for distribution to the Armed Forces.

Madam Dapaah said 400 of the bins had also been delivered to the Ministry of Interior for distribution to other Security Services.

“It is, therefore, expected of the public to cooperate by depositing only litter generated while on the street into these bins and not to fill them with household wastes,” she said.

“The management of solid waste, especially within the Municipalities over the years has been plagued with numerous challenges.”

Madam Dapaah said in response to the overwhelming sanitation challenges, the Ministry, under the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development Project (GARID), had secured a parcel of land to construct an Engineered Sanitary Landfill and a Materials Recovery Facility in the Ga West Municipality.

She said also, two Transfer Stations would be constructed at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission and a place in the Adentan Municipality.

The Minister said two major dumpsites at Abokobi and Agbogbloshie (Old Fadama) would be capped; adding that Expression of Interest (EOI) for Consultancy Services for Detailed Engineering Design (DED) and construction supervision for the Landfill and Capping components had been received and being evaluated.

She said the Greater Accra Sustainable Sanitation and Livelihood Improvement Project (GASSLIP) had also procured 30 Communal Waste Containers (Skips) and distributed to all the MMAs within the GAMA.

“Also, 24 motor powered small vehicles have been procured to further improve solid waste collection within GAMA,” she stated.

Madam Dapaah said to ensure effective monitoring of sanitation service delivery, the Ministry, in partnership with Jospong Group of Companies, was providing five pickup vehicles to the Ministry of Defence.