Communities within the japanese hall of the Greater Accra Region are getting ready to a sanitation emergency after government showed that the one operational landfill serving the world may just succeed in complete capability inside a month if pressing measures aren’t taken.

The caution emerged throughout an inspection talk over with through the Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy, and Religious Affairs, Ahmed Ibrahim, to the Tema Controlled Dumpsite at Kpone on Monday, February 23, 2026. 

The talk over with adopted briefings to the Ministry indicating that the ability, which serves as the general disposal web page for health facility, home, and business waste generated in japanese Accra, used to be nearing exhaustion.

The Minister used to be accompanied through the Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, Ebi Bright; the Municipal Chief Executive for Kpone-Katamanso, Samuel Tetteh Quarshie Morton; the Ashaiman MCE, Freeman Tsekpo; officers of the Ministry; representatives of Waste Landfills Company Ltd; and officials from affected assemblies.

Mr Ibrahim stated the aim of the talk over with used to be to evaluate stipulations firsthand and resolve what formal temporary will have to be submitted to President John Dramani Mahama.

“If critical steps are not taken, in about one month, the entire eastern part of Accra, covering about 10 metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies, will have nowhere to dump their waste,” he said.

He cautioned that waste operators from Accra East might be forced to move refuse so far as Nsawam, a earnings he described as financially and logistically unsustainable.

“Yes, it is true. We are sitting on a sanitation time bomb,” the minister stated.

Mr Ibrahim disclosed that roughly 25 million US bucks from the World Bank had prior to now been earmarked for landfill earnings, whilst a non-public sector-led built-in waste market remedy plant is beneath building at Agomeda. He famous that delays in executing those interventions had compounded the present pressures.

He stressed out that developing a correctly engineered landfill may just take between six months and greater than a yr, highlighting the will for fast stop-gap measures.

In reaction to the looming disaster, the Minister has convened an emergency assembly with the Greater Accra Regional Minister and all 29 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives within the area on Friday, February 27, 2026. Each meeting is anticipated to offer an in depth replace on sanitation and landfill market inside its jurisdiction.

The findings can be compiled right into a Cabinet Information Paper for deliberation.

“The President will be there, the Minister for Finance will be there, and the Ministers for Lands, Water, and Health will all be there. We will take decisive action,” he confident.

Meanwhile, the minister has directed the contractor managing the Kpone facility to put in force strict protection protocols, together with the necessary use of private protecting apparatus, to safeguard staff and casual waste pickers.

The Head of Waste Management on the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, Bertha Essel, disclosed that the dumpsite, firstly designed to perform for between 15 and 25 years, had lengthy exceeded its projected lifespan.

“The design airspace of 16 metres has been exhausted. We are now operating beyond 24 metres,” she stated.

She cited ordinary fireplace outbreaks, leachate overflow, deteriorating get admission to roads, and congestion led to through day by day waste inflows estimated at between 600 and 800 tonnes as crucial operational demanding situations.

The Municipal Chief Executive for Kpone-Katamanso, Samuel Morton, recalled a big fireplace outbreak on the landfill in January 2026, which left within reach communities shrouded in thick smoke for a number of days.

“It nearly resulted in demonstrations by residents. People are worried about their health and the safety of their children,” he stated.

Anthony Atidzornu, a contractor with Waste Landfills Company Ltd, the managers of the web page, warned that the rising top of waste tons has sophisticated fireplace keep watch over efforts, whilst leachate market and vehicular congestion throughout top disposal hours pose further protection dangers.

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