Kumasi landfill to be full in 16 months without €6m funding – Mayor

The Mayor of Kumasi, Richard Ofori Agyemang Boadi, has issued a warning that the city’s sole landfill site is projected to reach full capacity within the next 16 months unless an urgent €6 million is secured to construct two additional landfill cells.

He cautioned that failure to obtain the necessary funding could leave the Ashanti Regional capital without a designated waste disposal site, exacerbating the already dire sanitation situation in the metropolis.

According to the Mayor, the issue has been further complicated by the activities of seven other Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Ashanti Region, which dump their waste at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) landfill without contributing financially to its maintenance or expansion, thereby pushing the Assembly to the brink.

Mr. Ofori Agyemang Boadi stated that he is urgently lobbying the central government to appreciate the severity of the situation and release the €6 million needed to avert a potential breakdown in waste management in the city.

During a media engagement in Kumasi on Thursday, January 15, the Mayor emphasized, “As we currently stand, within the next 14 to 16 months, if we fail to construct two new cells, the facility will reach maximum capacity, and we will be unable to accommodate additional waste.

We require approximately six million euros to facilitate the construction.

Therefore, we must undertake significant efforts to ensure the central government fully comprehends the magnitude of the task at hand regarding waste management in the greater Kumasi area. We are actively working on this and engaging with relevant stakeholders.”

He further added, “We are persisting in our efforts. We are confident that by the time the current space is exhausted, the central government will provide the necessary support to construct at least one new cell, if not two, to prevent the situation from becoming unmanageable.”

The Mayor also acknowledged that the Assembly has struggled with maintaining sanitation standards, noting that certain initiatives introduced by the previous administration inadvertently exacerbated the filth situation in the city.

As part of renewed efforts to enhance sanitation, the KMA has announced that from February 1, cleaners in the metropolis will shift from midnight operations to dawn cleaning.

According to Mr. Ofori Agyemang Boadi, this strategic move aims to ensure streets remain clean throughout the morning and prevent the recurring issue of areas cleaned overnight becoming filthy again by daybreak.