Agbogbloshie waste heap must go – Mahama Ayariga declares

Mahama Ayariga, the Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, has vowed to lead a major operation to evacuate the massive heap of waste at Agbogbloshie completely.

He described the decades-old accumulation as a national emergency that must be tackled immediately.

Mr Ayariga said the sheer scale of the waste had compelled him to make its removal one of his major priorities since assuming office, revealing that he had visited the Agbogbloshie site three times within his first week as the new sector minister.

The Minister was speaking at the official launch of the second ecumenical convention in Accra, on the theme, “United in Christ, transforming society through creation care.”

Mr Ayariga said during his latest visit, he climbed to the top of the heap and was struck by the extent of the accumulation, which he estimated to be as high as a 10-storey building, reinforcing his determination to ensure that the waste was removed from the heart of Accra.

He disclosed that President John Dramani Mahama had directed the Ministries of Local Government, Finance, Roads and Highways, and Defence to work together to develop a comprehensive plan for the evacuation of the entire waste heap.

He stated that the government had already begun mobilising the resources required for the operation, including the Ghana Armed Forces, Jospong Group and private contractors.

“The exercise would require substantial logistical resources because of the volume of waste involved and the need to move it safely to an appropriate disposal facility,” he added.

Mr Ayariga said technical teams had therefore been tasked with determining the exact volume of waste at the site, and that the assessment would involve the use of drones and artificial intelligence to map and estimate the size of the heap, enabling the government to determine the number of trucks, heavy-duty equipment, personnel and other resources required.

The Minister explained that the government had about 200 dump trucks distributed across the country and had directed Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies, to release available trucks, the necessary operators and drivers to support the evacuation.

He said the scale of the exercise required a coordinated national effort, rather than leaving the responsibility solely to the local authority within whose jurisdiction Agbogbloshie falls.

Mr Ayariga said the waste would be transported to an engineered landfill site off the Nsawam Road, where it could be disposed of under more controlled and environmentally appropriate conditions.

He said authorities were also considering running the evacuation operation around the clock to accelerate the removal of the waste, noting that the proposed 24-hour operation would be subject to final arrangements and presidential approval.

Mr Ayariga acknowledged that the movement of hundreds of trucks carrying waste from Accra to the proposed disposal site could create temporary difficulties for motorists, particularly along the Accra-Nsawam route.

He, however, appealed to the public to accept the inconvenience as part of the collective effort to resolve what he described as a serious national sanitation problem.

“Let all of us be inconvenienced by the problem, and if we are all sufficiently inconvenienced by the problem, the danger of reverting to the problem will be minimised,” he stressed.

Mr Ayariga called on citizens to take personal responsibility for keeping their surroundings clean, stressing that a clean environment depended on thousands of individual actions carried out consistently every day.

He appealed to churches and other faith-based organisations to use their extensive networks and influence to promote sanitation, environmental protection and responsible citizenship.

He said the government was prepared to work with religious organisations and other stakeholders to build a culture in which environmental cleanliness was treated as a civic and moral responsibility.

The Minister said the Agbogbloshie operation should ultimately go beyond removing the existing heap, stressing the need to prevent a recurrence of the problem through improved waste management practices and greater public responsibility.

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