President of the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA), Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong has attributed Ghana's waste management problems to the inability of government to pay huge debts owed sector players.
Speaking at an annual general meeting of the association held in Accra, Dr. Agyepong explained that despite the capacities of various waste management companies, they are unable to fully deliver their mandate of ensuring that waste is collected and managed effectively because of accrued debts owed them.
He added that some members of ESPA have to depend on loan facilities from banks with consequential high interest rates before they can operate.
“Indeed majority of us also depend on overdraft facilities for our operations with its consequential high interest ratesâ€, he lamented.
The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Joseph Kofi Adda, who spoke as a special guest at the event, admitted that government owes service providers and that efforts are being made to pay those debts to enable them properly manage waste in the country.
He further commended ESPA for the various research and academic engagements it has undertaken to help conduct adequate research in the waste management sector and help develop innovations that will bring lasting solutions to Ghana’s waste problem.
The Environmental Service Providers Association is an umbrella body of private waste companies handling waste of various categories for Metropolitan/Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), in a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement.