Bekwai MP calls for dedicated sanitation fund to tackle Ghana’s waste crisis

Member of Parliament for Bekwai, Ralph Poku-Adusei has called for the establishment of a dedicated sanitation fund, arguing that existing financing for waste management is insufficient to provide lasting solutions to the country’s sanitation problems.

Poku-Adusei, a Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Select Committee on Sanitation and Water Resources, made the call during the committee’s monitoring tour of the Volta and Oti regions.

The committee visited the Ho Integrated Recycling and Compost Plant (IRECOP) at Akrofu-Agorve, where it assessed waste collection, processing and recycling operations.

The committee’s chairman, John Oti Bless, described the Volta Region as the cleanest of the regions visited so far during the nationwide monitoring exercise.

But Poku-Adusei said funding constraints remained a major challenge for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

“You have a municipality with eight sweepers. A municipality with eight sweepers. What can they sweep or where can they cover?” he said in an interview with JoyNews on the sidelines of the hearing.

He also raised concerns about the absence of permanent contracts with waste management companies in some districts and municipalities, saying the situation made sustained waste collection difficult.

Poku-Adusei said the 10 percent allocation from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) towards sanitation was a step in the right direction but was not sufficient to address the underlying problems.

“It is certainly not doing enough. There’s room for the government to do more,” he said, calling for the allocation to be complemented by longer-term financing mechanisms.

The Minority in Parliament is advocating a dedicated sanitation fund to provide sustainable financing for waste collection, processing and other sanitation services across the country.

Poku-Adusei said Ghana should move beyond a system focused mainly on collecting and disposing of waste towards processing it into useful products and energy.

“As a country, we should be in a position whereby this time we are into waste processing,” he said.

He cited waste-to-energy technologies, including biogas, as examples of approaches that could help Ghana derive economic value from waste while addressing environmental challenges.

The Volta Region generates an estimated 268,000 tonnes of solid waste annually, but only about 60 percent is collected and around two percent recycled, according to information presented during the committee’s visit.

The Ho IRECOP, which has a processing capacity of 600 tonnes per day, has also faced challenges including poor access roads and the absence of transfer stations. The committee said such issues would be captured in its report to Parliament.

The committee has also expressed support for a proposed National Sanitation Authority Bill, which is intended to strengthen coordination and management of sanitation services in Ghana.

Poku-Adusei has previously questioned the sustainability of national clean-up exercises without adequate plans for the disposal and processing of the waste collected.

The two-day monitoring exercise forms part of Parliament’s nationwide assessment of sanitation and waste management facilities.

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