Tricycle waste collectors in Kumasi have threatened to dump refuse at the entrance of the Oti Landfill Site if authorities fail to resolve persistent machine breakdowns disrupting waste disposal operations at the facility.
The operators say the situation has left dozens of waste collectors stranded for days without being able to offload refuse, leading to a growing backlog of waste collected from homes, hotels, markets, and other parts of the city.
Addressing the media during a protest at the landfill site on Monday, June 15, Chairman of the Sanitation Tricycle Waste Collectors, Salim Mohammed, said the continuous malfunctioning of equipment at the facility has severely affected their operations and heightened sanitation concerns in the metropolis.
According to him, the machines currently available at the site are unable to handle the large volumes of waste arriving daily, resulting in long queues and delays in waste disposal.
The aggrieved operators blamed the situation on recurring machine breakdowns over the past several months and warned that their patience is running out as the problem remains unresolved.
“No Aboboya will be here overnight. We are going to offload where we have parked, and nobody will stop us. No matter what, we are not sleeping here. Tomorrow, we will load and offload again.”
The operators also raised security concerns, alleging that fuel, tyres and motors have been stolen from tricycles parked overnight at the landfill site. They argued that management has failed to provide adequate security for their properties.
As a result, the collectors have vowed not to leave their tricycles at the site overnight and threatened to offload waste at the entrance of the landfill if immediate action is not taken.
Meanwhile, Kumasi Mayor Richard Ofori-Agyeman Boadi has acknowledged that the Oti Landfill Site has reached its capacity, creating additional challenges for waste management in the city.
He disclosed that the Kumasi Traditional Council has directed the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to identify a new location for a final waste disposal site to address the growing pressure on the existing facility.
“This week, a lot of officers are going to be on the ground outside Greater Kumasi to see whether we will be able to identify a suitable place. Once a location is identified, we will put it before the Nananom and, if it is allocated to us, we will start the engineering arrangements to relocate.”
The ongoing challenges at the landfill site have heightened sanitation concerns across parts of Kumasi, with heaps of refuse reportedly accumulating along sections of the Kaase-Kuwait stretch leading to the facility.
The waste collectors have called on government and relevant stakeholders to urgently resolve the operational difficulties at the site to avert a major sanitation crisis in the metropolis.
