Challenges of Privatizing Waste Management in the in Wa Municipality Of Ghana: A Case of Zoomlion Ghana Limited

In the past, management of waste in the Wa municipality in particular and Ghana in general was the soleresponsibility of District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies. As a result of inefficiency in management ofwaste by District, Municipal, and Metropolitan Assemblies, a private company known as zoomlion GhanaLimited was contracted to shoulder waste management in the entire country. This paper sought to examinechallenges in privatizing waste management in the Wa municipality of Ghana. Documented evidence reveals thatthe Integrated Solid Waste Management model has become the most preferred model for managing solid wastein urban centers of developing countries, it has not been adopted in the management of waste in the Wamunicipality by Zoomlion Ghana Limited due to financial and logistical constraints. Also Zoomlion GhanaLimited lacks the technical know how to effectively manage the waste generated. It is recommended that there isthe need for an introduction of incentive schemes such as subsidies, concessional loans and tax incentives toencourage investment in acquisition of equipment, research, training and project demonstration by the privatesector.Keywords: Challenges, Privatizing, Waste, Managemen

Climate variability and sustainable food production: Insights from north-eastern Ghana

The past two decades have seen invigorated debates on the causal link between climate variability and food crop production. This study[1] extends the debate further by investigating how climate variability has affected the production of four specific food crops: maize, millet, rice, and groundnuts in north-eastern Ghana. The results are based on temperature and rainfall data obtained from the Ghana Meteorological Agency and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and are supported with in-depth interviews with selected staff from other allied institutions. While an inverse relationship between climate variability and food crop production was established, the effects were not homogenous, as climate variables (rainfall and temperature) did not all exert the same effect across all crops. This suggests that the generalized interpretation of the relationship between climate variability and food crop production should be undertaken with caution and that each variable must be examined on its own merit. We argue that the negative relationship between climate variability and food crop production has the potential to erode the gains made by the state-sponsored development authority SADA in their poverty reduction drive in north-eastern Ghana.[1] *This article was curled from a PhD thesis of the corresponding author which is entitled “Climate variability: Implications for Water Resource and Food Security in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The thesis was successfully submitted at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana in 2017.

Urban floods and residential rental values nexus in Kumasi, Ghana

The supposition that the occurrence of flood event will have an inverse effect on rental values of residential housing properties is often accepted as a fact. However, the mechanism for this supposed impact has not been clearly articulated and the hypothesis is far from proven in Ghanaian housing rental market. This paper examined the impact of flood on residential rental values in Kumasi. The study adopted multiple research approaches in selecting zones with both flood and non-flood liable residential properties. The repeated sales model was then used to create local market indices to gauge flood impact on the rental values. The rental values of non-flooded residential properties were generally higher than their flooded counterparts by a margin of GHS 62.66 ±0.09 annually. While this supports existing postulations of a negative impact of flood on rental values, the results further showed that the extent of the impact varies across different residential property types. It is concluded that the wholesale assumption in literature that flood events diminish rental values should be interpreted with caution. The study recommends that the (dis)amenity effects of flood on rental values should therefore be assessed on case by case basis.Keywords: Floods, Ghana, Kumasi, Residential Rental Value, T-tes

Exploring the Dynamics of E-waste Disposal Strategies in Tamale, Ghana

Globalised inter-connected world; changing patterns of world standards and norms; and the emergence of consumerism have all drastically shaped the generation and management of e-waste. Cities in developing countries are grappling with developing sustainable strategies to dealing with e-waste and therefore households are compelled to fashion their own disposal strategies. This article examined some of these disposal strategies and the factors that influenced their adoption in Tamale, a growing city in northern Ghana. Data for the study were collected using different techniques including questionnaire survey and key informant interviews. The predominant disposal strategies that emerged were selling e-waste as scrap; donating to other people as gifts; selling as second hand product; disposing with other domestic wastes or combination of any of the strategies. These informal management strategies were influenced by respondents’ age, education level and income. It is recommended that the observed disposal strategies can be articulated in Ghana’s search for definitive e-waste management policies that are environmentally friendly, socially acceptable and economically viable.Keyword: E-waste, Disposal strategy, Ghana, Recycling, Legislation

Urban Design, Space Economy and Survival in the City: Exploring Women’s World of Work in Kumasi, Ghana

The nature of urban economic design in Kumasi, Ghana, is often reflective of neoliberal economic policies prescribed by Bretton Woods institutions during the economic reforms of the 1980s. The economic structure, which is characterized by uncertainties of formal jobs, has triggered people’s ingenuity to engage in novel occupations. One economic activity that has gained popularity in Kumasi is vending of roasted traditional food (RTF) by women. This chapter explores how women have used vending of RTF to overcome years of acute austerity in the “paid” job market. It concentrates on the economic, spatial, and social networks that sustain this informal activity. Drawing on multiple data sources, the results confirm how the structure of the city space has consigned RTF vendors to obscurity, yet their activities are responding to the economic realities of time—increasing urbanization, limited job opportunities, and accumulation of poverty. As a survival strategy, the vendors have developed social connections with clients and made their place comfortable in order to claim their rightful place in the urban space economy. We conclude that given their contributions, the vendors must be appreciated as agents of change and part of the urban system

Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology The buruli ulcer morbidity in the amansie West District of Ghana: A myth or a reality?

Although there is a lot of literature on the possible causes of Buruli ulcer (BU), no one is sure where the bacterium lives in the environment. It is also a mystery how the mycobacterium enters the human body, although it is clear the bacterium is unable to do so by itself. There is therefore a lot of myth about the disease epidemiology. This research has shown that the myth surrounding the cause of the disease and the origin of the disease pathogen has affected the treatment option sought by patients and the intervention strategies put in place by health expects in the Amansie West Distrct of Ghana. Whereas some patients in the Amansie west district associate the disease with witchcraft and magico-religious beliefs, the study showed that the disease is associated with aquatic environment that have been disturbed either through mining or intense agricultural activity. The aim of this paper is therefore to expand the frontiers of the argument by examining some of the predisposing factors and to identify the spatial pattern in the distribution of BU in the Amansie West District. The paper concludes that despite the myth, the disease causing organism thrives well in arsenic rich aquatic environment. However because of the widely rooted wrong perception, any attempt to manage the disease must first target the myth, in order to manage the reality

Urban Growth, Fuel Service Station Disasters and Policy Compliance in Ghana

Disasters associated with Fuel service stations (FSS) in Ghana have been debated  severally and attracted policy attention, yet their mitigation strategies seem too far  off and unimaginably  unrealistic. Knowing that such disasters can limit enjoyment  of citizenship rights, Ghana has developed safety standards geared towards  mitigating their effects. Framed around the compliance theory and drawing on  data from 150 residential owners located within 15.4m buffer zone and five state  institutions, this article examined the extent of compliance with safety policies  guiding FSS in Kumasi, Ghana. The results showed that compliance with safety  policies was sinking into its bare existential levels as none of the facilities selected  for the study passed all the 11 safety standards. The facilities also negatively affected  residents who never considered their place of abode as perilous and that they  live in zones of vulnerabilities. This situation it is argued, fundamentally affects development trajectory of the contemporary African city. It obviously obscures the realities of interrelated processes shaping urban disaster management. Even  though the spring-up of FSS have catapulted economic growth, inherently they are  also hazard-ridden. We suggest that in the broad scheme of urban planning, FSS  safety policies must not be discussed in the margins

Unequal location, unequal access: the spatial analysis of solid waste disposal services in Northern Ghana

Abstract Urban centres in Ghana continue to expand to areas with difficult accessibility, severely impacting location decisions on solid waste disposal sites (SWDS). This study uses the location theory to examine the spatial distribution of SWDS in urban Ghana. Methodologically, it uses the nearness neighbour tool, which is a key component in GIS for spatial analysis. The results show that the distribution of SWDS was clustered, randomized, and skewed. The distribution was influenced by accessibility and the ability to pay for waste management services. For these reasons, high-density populated communities were serviced through the central container collection system, while high-class residential areas benefited through the door-to-door collection system. Access to regular waste collection was challenging for the majority in low-class residential neighbourhoods and peri-urban communities. It is argued that unequal access to waste management services raises important policy issues. The unserved communities are more likely to be exposed to the potential negative impact of poor solid waste management. It is further argued that if vulnerability and location are linked to deprivation, it is necessary to understand how and why this has happened