Sanitation Ministry Charges MMDAs To Impose Surcharges On Waste Collectors
The Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Freda Prempeh, has urged municipal assemblies to enforce surcharges on waste collectors who have been contracted but fail to collect piles of refuse in various communities promptly.
According to her, imposing surcharges on these waste collectors was necessary to compel them to fulfil their obligations and ensure timely waste collection.
Ms Prempeh said this when she inspected areas along the Odaw River and Nima-Maamobi following the recent rainfall in some parts of the country.
Expressing her disappointment with the dire state of poor sanitation, Ms Prempeh said, “We cannot always sit back for the government to look for money to evacuate refuse, to drill drains, to dredge drains, to desilt gutters, we have to change our attitude. This refuse you see behind me is under the purview of the assembly. They have signed contracts with private service providers and are supposed to ensure that private service providers clear and collect the garbage.”
“We should not sit down as an assembly and take excuses from the service providers that my car has broken down and all that. There should be a provision in the by-law to surcharge them. If they don’t pick up the refuse on time, they should be surcharged. So as an assembly, we will collaborate with you, but all these refuse is under the purview of the assemblies, and they are supposed to ensure that it is cleared by the private service providers,” she added.
Additionally, the sector minister expressed her commitment to engage in discussions regarding the establishment of specialized environmental courts aimed at enhancing the efficiency of prosecuting sanitation-related offences.
This is in response to mounting calls stressing the significance of these specialized courts in expediting sanitation cases, which frequently encounter delays when brought before district courts.
“The advocacy is still on, but I believe together as a ministry, the Regional Coordinating Council and the assemblies, we should be able to put our heads together and ensure that the right thing is done. I believe that if we enforce our by-laws, we will not be taking people to the sanitation courts. So we have to start from the basis, from where the problem is coming from, and that is the gap. And once we’ve been able to find the problem, we should be able to solve it,” she noted.