For more than thirty years after independence, waste disposal was not properly

coordinated by any form of authority. What happened was that within a locality a

common place was found where those living in that particular area dumped domestic

waste. In local parlance, the place became commonly known as "Borlaso" and that is

how it is still known in many parts of Ghana. Even the Town Council labourers

commonly known as "Tankaase," (a mispronunciation of "Town council") also dumped the

rubbish they collected from sweeping the market and other public places. The

garbage soon became like hills. Vultures hovered over the area picking clean bones.

The danger was that during rainy seasons they became havens for mosquitoes, worms

and other disease carrying insects. The heavy rains dragged big chunks of garbage

into wells and rivers which were major drinking sources for those living in the

locality. Apart from malaria, the inhabitants were also threathened with cholera.





Due to these problems, the city or town councils, now called Metropolitan

assemblies, intervened to prevent further deaths through malaria and cholera. The

city councils built public toilets at almost every strategic area within the cities.

Near every toilet, a place was created for a refuse dump. The councils had trucks to

collect the refuse at regular intervals.





As more toilets and refuse dumps were built, the councils began to lose control over

the collection of refuse. Most of their vehicles had broken down and the workers too

were losing interest due to low salaries. Refuse control became very critical during

the '90s. The NPP government took the decision to privatise toilet and refuse

collection. Many entrepreneurs joined in with their own trucks. The latest and the

biggest company was Zoomlion.





The strategy of Zoomlion was to sell big refuse bins to individuals, schools,

churches and companies. They went round with their trucks and collected garbage from

the bins placed at different points. Monthly fees are collected for the service.





The trucks then take the load of garbage to the outskirts of the city and deposited

them into a big hole dug for that purpose. When the hole becomes full is abandoned

and a new land found for waste disposal purposes. The first ground that was full was

abandoned for twenty years. When the second place too was full it was also abandoned

for twenty years. Zoomlion has been in Ghana for not more than four years, so it is

not yet known what they intend to do with the fallowed lands. Since the garbage is

not sorted out or seperated, it contains old batteries, fridges, television sets,

old electronic parts and plastic bags. All these are very dangerous for the

environment. For how long can this reckless use of land continue?





A lot of suggestions for safe disposal of garbage have been made by concerned

groups. Since Zoomlion is considered a giant group and leader in waste management

and environmental sanitation in Ghana it will be necessary for them to research into

effective waste disposal that will not be harmful to Ghanaians in the future. Since

we don't sort out garbage all types of waste are put together no matter how harmful

some of them are to the health of the people. There are different types of waste:

medical, biomedical and solid. These must be disposed of with extra care.





Some suggested the use of incinerators. Incineration is a waste treatment process

that involves the combustionn of organic substances contained in waste materials.

Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are described as

"thermal treatment". Incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash,

flue gas, and heat. Incineration with energy recovery is one of several

waste-to-energy technologies such as gasification, Plasma arc gasification,

pyrolysis and anaerobic digestion. Incineration may also be implemented without

energy and materials recovery.



However, there are problems of mass waste incineration that are harmful to the

workers, people living in the area and the environment due to pollution. Incineratin

plants are very expensive to build and to run. They require regular maintenance

which, in many cases, requires a complete shutdown of the processs.





The best altenative is by processing the waste to produce biogas and biomass. Biogas

typically refers to a gas produced by biological breakdown of organic material by

the plant to produce energy. Biogas is made up primarily of Methane and Carbon

Dioxide, but can also contain small quantities of Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Hydrogen

Sulphide, and even Oxygen. With processing, biogas can be cleaned up to make a

substitute for natural gas which can therefore be pumped to homes and businesses for

cooking and heating etc. Biomass, on the other hand, is a renewable source. It is a

biological material from living organisms from wood and waste.





These methods are better for the environment in terms of non-pollution and energy

production. Zoomlion is aware of this but probably the cost of research and the cost

of putting up the plant are preventing the company from taking the environmentally

healthy and safe option. The government has so far taken no steps towards strict

enforcement of rules concerning safe waste disposal methods by Zoomlion and other

waste disposal companies in Ghana. All Ghanaians must be involved in this debate.

You may be living abroad but your relatives and friends are in Ghana.



Written by Stephen Atta Owusu

Author:Dark Faces at Crossroads

Email: stephen.owusu@email.com