Govt To Roll Out Revolutionary Waste Management System; MMDAS Given 30-Day Ultimatum for Sites

In a major move to transform sanitation across the country, the government has announced plans to implement an integrated, end-to-end waste management system starting at the household level.

As part of the initiative, all Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have been given a strict 30-day ultimatum to identify and submit one-acre land sites for the construction of modern waste transfer stations.

The Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mr Mahama Ayariga, disclosed this on Saturday during the National Sanitation Day (NSD) flagship exercise held at Rawlings Park in Accra, organised in commemoration of World Cleanup Day 2026.

According to the Minister, the comprehensive policy direction aligns with President John Dramani Mahama’s directive to build an efficient, sustainable waste infrastructure.

Key components of the new strategy include distributing segregated waste bins to individual households, replacing open-bucket waste tricycles with safer containment units, and establishing strategically located transfer stations across all assemblies.

Mr Ayariga emphasised that the integrated system is designed to fix long-standing gaps along the entire sanitation chain from household collection to transfer, final disposal, and recycling.

Addressing participants at the event, the Mayor of Accra, Mr Michael Kpakpo Allotey, stressed that infrastructural interventions must be matched by a fundamental change in public attitude.

He urged traders and residents to view environmental cleanliness as an everyday lifestyle rather than a task reserved for special clean-up exercises.

Comparing sanitation to daily domestic hygiene, the mayor noted that business owners have an equal obligation to keep their operating spaces spotless.

He highlighted that clean market environments protect traders’ health, ensuring hard-earned profits are spent on family welfare rather than treating preventable sanitation-related diseases.

Mr Allotey commended traders who have already adopted the practice of sweeping during regular business hours and urged others to emulate them.

Adding traditional weight to the initiative, Captain Nii Kojo Nseni Mankattah IV, Asafoatse Onukpa of the Ga State, speaking on behalf of the Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, expressed worry over the recurring cycle of indiscriminate littering shortly after heavily funded clean-up exercises.

He called on community members and market operators to take personal ownership of their surroundings, guard public spaces against indiscriminate dumping, and actively challenge offenders on the spot.

The exercise brought together key stakeholders, including officials from the Local Government Ministry and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), traditional leaders, market women, youth groups, and sanitation workers, under the national theme, “National Sanitation Day: Local Actions Yielding National Impact,” alongside the global theme, “From Clean Plates to Clean Cities.”

Bala Ali, ISD