Cecilia Abena Dapaah is clueless about waste management – Waste management expert
Edward Asadu Kukurubour-CEO of Asadu Waste Management
Dr Edward Asadu Kukurubuor, Chief Executive Officer of Asadu Group of Companies, an astute figure in the waste management business during a discussion on Active Morning Show complained that both the government’s and the citizenry’s attitude towards waste management has been a bane of the industry.
Though president Akufo- Addo’s target is for Accra to be the cleanest city in Africa, Mr Asadu posits that “no government is willing to take the risk of managing waste well”.
He said there is more room for improvement regarding waste management in Ghana as even the era where waste is just transported to landfill sites is long gone with the new system which is recycling and composting now what Ghana need to take seriously.
According to Mr Asadu, though waste management is a thriving industry they are struggling in Ghana as the government has not been doing enough for them.
This situation coupled with Ghanaians’ attitude towards waste has caused about 40% of the waste management companies to fold up.
He insists that “Ghanaians ought to know how dangerous waste is and strive to address it”.
Setting sites on the issues of plastic waste, Dr Asadu calls for strict monitoring of that system especially those who produce such plastic waste and ensure that it is recycled”.
He added, “We must find a way of managing it or ban it”.
Mr Asadu reiterated that recycling is the new era in waste management but little is being done by the government to embrace it and blamed both the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party administration for making sanitation a secondary matter.
Upon the formation of the Sanitation Ministry, Dr Asadu narrated that as stakeholders in the industry they were filled with hope but were left disappointed by both Ministers, the late Kofi Adda and the current one Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah pointing out that “they do not understand the language of the waste management business”.
On ways to properly regulate the Waste Management industry, he pointed out the need to tackle the illegal dumping of waste which he said is a huge problem currently.
He said some communities are not being able to afford the tariffs the waste management companies charge since they adopted the pay-as-you-dump policy as the government was not paying them when they were paid by the government with some debts running into years.
Giving examples of waste management, he cited Germany where he was trained and said waste is treated as a utility and the industry is properly regulated but because the Ministry in charge of the sector in Ghana does not understand the language of waste management, nothing effective is done.
He then recommended the enforcement of proper rules to regulate the industry, calling for people to be sanctioned for sanitation offences. He also underscored the need for government to take the issue of recycling seriously as it is a game changer in the waste management business.
Ghanaians were also advised to change their attitude towards waste management and strive to keep a clean environment.
