The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD), Senyo Hosi, has called on the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, particularly the more prominent ones to rely more on their Internally Generated Funds than on the central government to combat the sanitation challenges in the country.
His comments came on the back of complaints by the AMA Chief Executive, Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah, that the lack of infrastructure and resources was hindering the provision of quality sanitation services in the capital.
According to Mr Hosi, it is unfortunate that the AMA, which he describes as “the most resourced Municipality” is still dependent on the central government for the provision of key social services.
He advised the Assembly to put more effort into the collection of property taxes and ensure that the more affluent areas in the capital are made to pay more to ensure development projects are funded.
“I don’t think that the Mayor actually needs government to get any of his things done. Accra is the most resourced Municipality but yet it’s easily one of the least performing. Property rates, property rents, how much are they paying. The Municipalities generally have resources within their space and within their reach but everything in this country has become government, government, government. Everybody is expecting something from ken [Ofori-Atta]’s budget. The old man is still raising his spectacles on his forehead, allow the guy to breathe because he’s struggling. We should solve the thing ourselves,” he said at the launch of The Ghana Action Series, a campaign by One Ghana Movement and Citi FM.
“The properties that we have, big houses; go to Lakeside Estates where I stay, we were paying property rates of 50 and 100 cedis. Who is going to fix the roads for you? The first thing is that we need to let the property rates be right. Collect the property money, let the rich people pay the right money.”
‘Not enough infrastructure’
The Accra Mayor on Tuesday, lamented the lack of infrastructure to ensure that waste that is generated in the capital daily is properly disposed of.
He stated that the only landfill site in the city does not operate throughout the day, leaving residents with no choice but to dump their waste at inappropriate locations.
“It’s about infrastructure. The truth is that we don’t have it at all. Currently, in the whole of the Accra Region, we have only one landfill site, which is not engineered, at Kpone. Technically in about one and a half years, the Kpone landfill site will get full and we’ll be in trouble. In Accra, the Kpone landfill site doesn’t operate 24 hours. Have you ever seen a city that is running waste management that does not operate 24/7? But the Mayor does not control the Kpone landfill site. So by 5 pm, the Kpone landfill site is closed,” he said.
Senyo Hosi also called on Ghanaians to change their mindsets towards the disposal of waste and to be willing to pay to ensure that the operators of landfill sites are remunerated well enough to ensure the constant functioning of these sites.
“We need to learn to pay. We’re not paying and if we don’t pay, nothing works. Waste management is an economic issue. We need to rethink how we orient the general public about waste. It’s a resource that has to go through some process which must be understood and clearly defined. But at the end of the day, whoever is going to use that resource must find some economic benefit out of it. If you’re operating a landfill site and the person is not going to be paid for it, it’s not going to work. If the pricing is wrong, it’s still never going to work,” he added
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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana
