A youth group called Organized Youth for Development (OYD) at Kpone in the La Dadekotopong Municipality has threatened to embark on series of demonstrations if the Kpone landfill site is not shut down immediately.
Leader of the youth group,Nii Noi Tetteh bemoaned the fruitless engagements they have had with the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mrs. Cecilia Abena Dapaah and the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Ishmael Ashittey over the issue for the past six months.
“We went there [Ministry of Sanitation] engaged them, that was in November and we were given very firm assurances that come end of February they have seen the need for this place to be shut down so they have plans far advanced to relocate the landfill site and so they pleaded with us to halt our action our planned peaceful demonstration and so against our will, reluctantly, we obliged.”
Mr. Tetteh assured that if nothing is done, they will sue government and the Ministry of Sanitation for exposing them to hazards.
“We will sue the government and the Ministry of Sanitation in particular to make sure the right thing is done.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Ishmael Ashittey together with some Metropolitan and Municipal Chief Executives were on a tour to assess the state of the landfills.
They also engaged with the angry youth who are calling for the closure of the facility.
The Regional Minister appealed to the to calm down as they work to address the issue.
He said he has had discussions with the Sanitation and Water Resource Minister and the relocation will be executed as soon as possible.
For his part, the Municipal Chief Executive of the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA), Hon. Felix Annang-La appealed to the youth for cool heads noting that, it was practically impossible for government or the TMA to shut down the Kpone landfill overnight.
He said only people in Tema, Ashaiman and Kpone are allowed to dump their refuse at the Kpone landfill until the relocation is successfully done.