Kumasi-Ghana, June 27, GNA – Work on the transformation of the Oti Landfill Site in Kumasi into a modern waste treatment plant is slated to be completed in November, contractors working on the project, have assured.
Mrs Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources who was briefed by contractors after a tour of the facility admitted more than 70 per cent of work had been done.
The 20-year-old Landfill Site covers 65 acres of land where the current project had reclaimed more than 40 acres of the degraded land size.
Mrs. Dapaah after the inspection observed that even before the completion of the project, works done so far had prevented leachate – water that has percolated through a solid and leached out some elements in the community, polluting the environment with pungent smell and breeding mosquitoes.
The developing site has created ponds where the wastewater goes for treatment and later used for compost trials and to breed fish.
The Minister was impressed with the pond’s existence which she believed had started serving as a wetland for millions of birds.
“These ponds could serve as a haven for the birds,” she observed, adding that “who knows, if we develop this place well tourists could come from around the globe to watch and study these different species of birds in the wetlands”.
Mrs Dapaah said treating the waste was creating wealth for the people because the fresh waste sorters could come and sort right away and the rest managed by the new site created.
She expressed the hope that the landscaping, roads, and gas entrapment concepts would be fixed on time for full operation of the area.
The Minister mentioned that about 10,000 tree seedlings of economic and ornamental uses would be planted and nurtured at the material recovering site.
