Factsheet on Solid Waste

8/3/2019 Factsheet on Solid Waste

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FACT SHEETSolid Waste Disposal(SWD) in Ghana

AbstractThis fact sheet seeks to assess thesolid waste disposal (SWD) situation in

Ghana and to identify prospects forimprovement focusing on remediationof dumpsites and sanitary landfills. Thepaper will establish that the keyproblems with solid waste disposal inGhana principally relate to:

Problems with indiscriminatedumping;

Increasing difficulties with acquiringsuitable disposal sites;

Difficulties with conveyance of solid

waste by road due to worseningtraffic problems and the lack ofalternative transport options; and

The weak demand for compostingas an option for waste treatmentand disposal.

Generally the poor state of wastemanagement is clearly not only anengineering problem. Rapidurbanization, poor financing capacity oflocal authorities, low technical capacityfor planning and management of solidwaste, weak enforcement of environmental regulations - which allowlocal authorities to flout environmentalregulations without any sanctions have

all contributed to compound theproblem. The Ghanaian experienceshows that within the existing socio-economic context, manual systems aresupreme. The challenge therefore is todevelop and promote disposal systemsthat require a minimum level ofmechanical equipment.

The Magnitude of the ProblemThe disposal of solid waste has alwaysbeen an intractable problem throughoutGhana. Landfills in Ghana are primarilyopen dumps without leachate or gas

recovery systems. Several are locatedin ecological or hydrologically sensitiveareas. They are generally operatedbelow the standards of sanitarypractice. Municipal budgetaryallocations for operation andmaintenance are always inadequate.The result is substandard and unsafefacilities which pose public health risksand aesthetic burdens to the citizensthey are meant to serve. It is estimatedthat throughout the country only about10% of solid wastes generated areproperly disposed off.

In the last few years problems with solidwaste disposal have assumedincreased prominence as a political

issue especially in the urban areas.The dismissal of a mayor of the capitalcity (Accra) in 2002, was largelyattributed to his inability to deal with theproblems of waste management.

Based on an estimated population of 18million and an average daily waste

generation per capita of 0.45 kg, Ghanagenerates annually about 3.0 milliontons of solid waste. Accra, the capital,and Kumasi, the second city with acombined population of about 4 millionand a floating population of about 2.5million generate over 3,000 tons of solidwaste daily. Almost all the collectedquantities of wastes in Ghana dependon the waste sink function of theenvironment for assimilation.

Overview of Current SituationIn recent years several large foreignloans have been secured to help tacklethe problems of environmentalsanitation. Ghanas first sanitary landfillfacilities were recently commissioned inthe 4 largest towns in the country Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi andTamale between 2003 and 2004. Insmaller towns and rural areas the issueof solid waste disposal has never reallybeen a priority issue. Few districts areknown to invest in the development ofsolid waste disposal sites.

Generally conditions of waste disposalin Ghana are similar to those in many

developing countries within the tropicalclimates. The overwhelming majority oflandfills in Ghana are open dumps eventhough these are strongly discouragedin the national sanitation policy. Theproblems associated with opendumping are briefly described insections below. However the mostfeasible options for SWD that will formthe basis for the rest of the paper are:

Controlled dumping

Sanitary land filling

Compostingand

Incineration.

Generally complex systems for wastedisposal that is coupled with energyrecovery such as gasification andpyrolysis are not considered to befinancially and technically sustainable inGhana and will thus not be discussed inthis document.

Uncontrolled D umping of RefuseOpen refuse dumps are mostcommonly located at the perimeter ofmajor urban centres in open lots,

wetland areas, or next to surface watersources. Open dumps are generallysited based on considerations of accessto collection vehicles rather than

hydrological or public healthconsiderations. In rural areas and smalltowns, there are often no vehicles forcollection hence uncontrolled dumpingoccurs within the built up areas - with allits attendant health hazards andnegative environmental impact.

Fig. 1: Uncontrolled dumpsite in Tema,Ghana

The recent proliferation of plastic bags

for packaging has seriously aggravatedthe negative impact of uncontrolleddumping creating very unsightlyconditions.

Generally, the widespread prevalenceof uncontrolled dumping reflects theweak capacity of districts andmunicipalities and given the lack ofresources for dealing with the problem,it is likely that for hundreds of smalltowns and villages, this option willcontinue as the only option for SWD inthe medium to long-term. The key

challenge for local authorities thereforerelates to how to upgrade the numerousuncontrolled dumping grounds in orderto ensure some semblance of order andhygiene to uncontrolled dumpsitesusing manual labour.

C ontrolled dumpingThe sanitation policy recommendscontrolled dumping with cover as thepreferred option for all small towns andrural areas. In practice however, thereare few good examples. In mostcommunities controlled dumping sitesare located on river banks and indepressed areas such as in borrow pits,surface mining areas, ravines, oldquarries and valleys. Generally thestandard of operation and maintenanceon these landfills are inadequate. Thereare often no mechanical equipment forspreading and compaction of wastewhich means little reduction in wastevolumes. Fly and rodent control areoften neglected and there are seriousproblems with littering. Few districtassemblies (DAs) can afford to haulrequired inert cover materials todisposal sites. Various trials have been

made with use of industrial wastes suchas shavings from timber sawmills(which are abundant in most urbanareas) for this purpose but research in

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this area are still scanty and the extentof suitability are not well documented.With low central government budgetsand weak capacity for internallygenerating funds, most DAs findsustained operation of controlled landfillsites a real burden. However there is areal need for improvement in current

levels of operations and in the designand siting of new facilities to amelioratecurrent levels of environmentaldegradation.

Sanitary LandfillingThis option is the recommended choicefor solid waste disposal for themetropolitan and municipal areas(comprising about 10 cities withpopulations over 200,000). Landfilling isconsidered the most feasible optionfrom the point of view of costs and levelof environmental impact. Howeverexperiences with landfill sites that meetengineering requirements in Ghana arefew. Indeed, the first set of landfillprojects have only been recentlycommissioned in 4 key metropolitanareas. These projects were mostlysponsored by external donors includingthe World Bank and the DFID. All thenew landfill sites were designed anddeveloped with technical assistancefrom foreign consultants. Generally thetrend has been to develop solid wastedisposal sites alongside wastestabilization pond based treatmentsystems for liquid wastes. However

none of the recently completed siteshas operated for long. It remains to beseen whether the beneficiary cash-strapped Metropolitan

Fig. 2:Kumasi Sanitary Landfill showingwaste in Cell yet to be covered.

Assemblies, who operate with littlesupervision and monitoring fromEnvironmental Protection Agenciesover the years will commit the neededresources to ensure that they operateas designed in sustainable way.

The current effort in the 4 metropolitanareas has highlighted 2 key problemswith this option: (i) difficulties with

acquiring suitable landfill sites and (ii)the negative impact of worsening trafficproblems. Increased economic activitiesand its concomitant growth in industry

and real estate has led to substantialdemand for land in peri-urban areas.DAs are thus constantly under pressureto find new sites farther from thetown/city. The newly developed sites forwastes disposal in the two principaltowns of Accra and Kumasi both havedisposal sites in excess of 20 km and

the worsening situation is bound to addto costs of wastes disposal. Anotherassociated problem with disposal siteslocated far away is that of theworsening traffic situation in all cities.This is serious problem since all solidwaste is transported by road. Traffic jams have a major impact onturnaround times and ultimately thecosts and efficiency of operations.

CompostingGenerally conditions in Ghana are veryconducive for composting in terms ofwaste composition and weatherconditions. However composting hasnever flourished as an option for refusetreatment and disposal. Most localauthorities feel, based on localexperience, that the running costs ofcomposting plants are excessive andunjustifiable.

Box 3: The experience of alocal NGOThe Ghana Organic AgricultureNetwork (GOAN) has promotedcompost as an option for solid wastemanagement. The experience of

GOAN has shown that: technically,there are good prospects forsustainable operation of compostplants. The plant designs involvesimple screening and maturing thatcan be operated by communitygroups or private sector. Though agrowing horticulture industry hasgenerated some demand for compostthe operations of GOAN confirm thelong held view that there is lowdemand for compost and financialsustainability for composting isdifficult to attain. The problems with

financial sustainability are attributedto: (i) lack of awareness about thesoil enriching benefits of compostwhich means there is little demandfor compost and (ii) lack of supportfrom the key agencies who could domost to promote it ie. The Ministry ofLocal Government (who areresponsible for waste management)and the Ministry of Food andAgriculture (MOFA)

The only known large composting plantin the country was built with externaldonor support and commissioned in theearly 1980s. During its early years ofoperation the plant was useful inhelping reduce the volume of waste.

However high maintenance costsadversely affected its sustainability. Inthe last few years most of themechanical components have beendecommissioned and the plant currentlyoperates only for demonstrationpurposes.

IncinerationThe national policy recommends smallscale incineration plants for thetreatment and disposal option for healthcare and hazardous wastes. In mosttowns with health facilities smallincinerators have been built as part ofthe health provision infrastructure.These facilities involve simple designswith lateritic bricks, cement blocks andmetal. Local firewood is the mostcommon energy source and thefacilities are easily operated andmaintained by environmental healthstaff of the District Assemblies. Thesesimple incinerators have providedseveral years of service in dealing withrelatively small quantities of hazardoushospital wastes. However in realitymany of such facilities have noenvironmental controls and oftencomprise nothing more thancombustion of medical and chemicalwaste in an oven or open pit.

Key Knowledge gapsGenerally level of research anddocumentation of experiences is verylow. The analysis of the current

situation reveals key knowledge deficitareas including the following:

Options (preferably labour

intensive) for upgrading wastedumping sites and landfillmanagement

Experiences with resourcemobilization for solid wastemanagement within localauthorities.

Experiences with monitoring and

control of waste disposal by local

authorities. Specific examples arerequired for questions like How doother countries build capacity toensure that local authorities do notflout environmental requirementsfor landfill based disposal sites?

Experiences with sustainable

composting systems and successstories on strategies for promotingcomposting as a wastemanagement option.

AuthorshipThis Fact Sheet was developed by Anthony

Mensah, Director, Waste Management,Kumasi, Ghana - [email protected] andEugeneLarbi [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Also contact: [email protected] orwww.trend.watsan.net.

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Factsheet on Solid Waste

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