The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Wenchi Municipality in the Bono East Region, Dr. Patrick Kwakye Afriyie, has said the evacuation of three dumpsites in the municipality formed part of the government’s priorities to ensure that dumpsites sited close to residential communities were evacuated to prevent any disaster.
Speaking to journalists during the evacuation of the dumpsites in the Droboso community, he said a similar dumpsite at the Wenchi market was also evacuated by the then Kufuor government which had now been converted into a maize market.
‘The Wenchi Maize Market used to be a dumpsite which was evacuated by the then President John Kufuor government and converted into a maize market,” he said.
The Wenchi municipality has a temporal landfill site which is being used to burry waste and plans are ongoing to ensure an engineered landfill site to serve the municipality,” he emphasised.
Meanwhile, an over 60-year-old rubbish dump in the Droboso District of Wenchi Municipality has been evacuated to bring huge relief to the residents in the community.
The evacuation exercise through the effort of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources in collaboration with the municipal assembly.
The dumpsites included one in Droboso which was over 60 years, the Asuano dumpsite also over 50 years and Kwase dumpsite.
According to the elated residents, the dumpsite had always been a breeding ground for mosquitoes, causing malaria, cholera among other diseases.
Furthermore, the residents noted that they had consistently been appealing to the government to evacuate the rubbish dump and fortunately their plea had been heard.
A sanitation guard at the Drobo community, Osei Kofi, who could not hide his excitement, indicated that the rubbish dump will no longer tolerate dumping of refuse at the site after the evacuation exercise.
He gave the assurance they were ready to pay a token to dump their refuse in containers that will be provided to the community so as to avert a recurrence of the site developing into heap of rubbish.