KMA IN CRUEL ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, KMA, has been caught up in a serious pollution

of the environment including the Oda River that serves as the reliable source of water

for inhabitants of Atonsu-Oti and many other communities downstream. 

But the Director of the Waste Management Department of the KMA, Prosper

Kotoka says slugging of the feacal matter into the River is a necessary evil as the

Assembly repairs the liquid waste Cell at the Landfill Site.

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, KMA, owns and manages the Landfill Site at

Atonsu Oti for proper disposal of both solid and liquid waste from Kumasi and the

adjoining districts. 

The Cell that caters for proper disposal and management of effluence developed

problems about years go with a leakage. 

The Assembly secured funding to repair it and also to construct another Stabilization

pond with other ancillary facilities to cater for the huge human excreta dislodged at the

site on daily basis for which work has been ongoing for more than for some time now. 

To find an alternative for the damaged liquid waste Cell, the KMA has allowed the

disposal of untreated effluence near the landfill site which flows through a deliberately

dug channel directly into the Oda River. 

In the course of flowing into the Oda River, the human excreta usually spills into the

wetland and also the premises of the residential facilities that legally springing up in

that vicinity. 

The seeping of the chemicals from the landfill site especially from the heap of solid

waste, is also said to have seriously contaminated the ground water such that even deep

well or borehole water is not safe for human consumption as espoused by these

residents who shared their horrifying experiences with Ashanti Today.

I have been here for about two years now and the situation hear is serious. In the

afternoon, you cant even stay hear. When you enter your room, you are greeted

with an unbearable stench, lamented, Owusu Ansah, a landlord.

Another caretaker landlady Akos noted "i just returned to this house after i was

forced after my premises was flooded with the human excreta spillage"

 Available data from the KMA show that about 800 tankers dislodge the effluence at

this place everyday with the smaller tankers paying 30 Ghana Cedis while the bigger

ones pay 60 Ghana Cedis per trip. 

The disposal is not supervised by any KMA official leaving the tanker drivers and their

mates to go about it without any care for the aftermath.

 Consequently, the Oda River, which serves as the main source of water for vegetable

farming as well as domestic activities among residents in the downstream. 

These communities include Oti, Aduaden and Dedeesua in the Bosomtwe district.  

An environmentalist, Scientific     Osei Yaw, who has also been monitoring the

disturbing situation for sometime, describe the action of the KMA as an illegality that

should be addressed immediately to reduce the pollution and health challenges it is

posing to innocent people. 

The Director of the Waste Management Department of the KMA,

Prosper Kotoka, noted that the decision to allow the effluence into the wetland and

River is 'a necessary evil' since there is no alternative to the damaged liquid disposal

cell at the Landfill Site.

 Mr. Kotoka admitted hiding the problem from the Environmental Protection Agency,

EPA, despite submitting a rehabilitation plan for the damaged Cell. 

The Ashanti Regional Director of the EPA, Samuel Oteng, said his outfit is not

aware of the serious environmental pollution by the

KMA.