The Bone East Regional Minister, Mr Kwasi Adu-Gyan, has appealed to the chiefs and people of the area to remove any impediments to facilitate the construction of an integrated waste treatment plant in the region.

He said the only landfill site in the region was more than 50 years old and, therefore, needed to be decommissioned.

The minister said due to land litigations over the years, construction of a new landfill site had stalled.

Speaking at the Graphic/Zoomlion sanitation dialogue in Techiman in the Bono East Region yesterday, Mr Adu-Gyan said the project, which was one of 16 to be constructed across the country by the Jospong Group with support from the government, stalled because the owner of the land had placed an injunction on its use.

He said through the assistance of chiefs and other actors, the case was being withdrawn from court for an amicable resolution.

The minister gave the Techiman Municipal Assembly and the chiefs a week’s ultimatum to resolve the matter for work on the project to resume.

He said if after the period the problem was still not resolved, the project would be relocated to another area.

Sanitation situation

Contributing to a panel discussion, the Municipal Chief Executive for Techiman, Mr Kofi Donyina, said besides Accra and Kumasi, Techiman, Kasoa and Ashaiman were municipalities where the bulk of waste was generated and where enormous resources were being spent on sanitation.

Mr Donyina further said the completion of the project would enable the assembly to re-channel the huge amounts of money spent on sanitation into other projects.

For his part, the Chief of Kenten and Dabehene of the Techiman Traditional Area, Nana Boasiako Antwi, gave the assurance that he and his colleagues would help resolve the issue to ensure the completion of the project.

He said solving sanitation challenges in the municipality was a shared responsibility and, therefore, asked the people not to sit on the fence.

“Let’s wake up and get involved and see to it that offenders are punished to serve as a deterrent to others,” the chief said.

Nana Antwi said they had formed an environmental sub committee of which he was the chairman and said sanitation offenders who appeared before the committee would be sanctioned.

The chief commended Graphic Communications Group Ltd and Zoomlion for the programme which he described as laudable.

Source: Graphic