frederick kpodo landfill report
DESCRIPTION
LANDTRANSCRIPT
KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NAME: KPODO FREDERICK.
INDEX NUMBER: 9985113.
PROGRAMME OF STUDY: BSC ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE.
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT REPORT
REPORT ON A VISIT TO THE OTI LANDFILL SITE ON 23RD
NOVEMBER 2015.
OBJECTIVE
To understand the principles of solid and liquid waste management at the landfill site.
The processes that occur at the landfill site.
INTRODUCTION
A landfill site is a final disposal site where municipal solid waste is dumped, compacted or
flattened, covered with sand, and left to decompose or break down. It is also called ‘waste dumps’
or ‘rubbish dumps’.
In Ashanti region, the landfill which has been operational since 2004 consists of 4 cells and sits
on 100 acres of land It is scheduled to receive waste through 2020 and then close. By then, it is
projected to have 4,500,000 tons of waste .It has waste management facilities that would help
reduce the stench from the site and is capable of containing some of the solid and liquid waste
generated in the Kumasi metropolis. The Oti landfill was designed for a period of 15 years with
three phases and has been used for 11 years. (2004-2015)
At the entrance is a checkpoint; where people are checked before entering the site and a control
room; which has a weighbridge to measure the exact tonnage of waste materials generated every
day. It also helps them to know the weight of waste produced from the individual collection
stations. At the control room, every company’s name, where the waste is coming from and tonnage
are recorded and the source of the waste.
The landfill site is operated by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and contractors. There
are three methods of waste collection. One is the door-to-door collection; where vehicles collect it
from individual houses. Landlords pay for this. Secondly is the communal collection; where waste
is collected at the transfer station (temporal place of gathering waste) and the heap collection or
leftover collection. For every one (1) tonne of waste collected by a contractor, he is paid GHS
15.00. 1500 metric tons of wastes are generated in the Kumasi Metropolis but only 1300 metric
tons are collected. The remaining 200 tons may go to water bodies, animal feeding, into drains or
burnt.
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT AT OTI LANDFILL MANAGEMENT
According the guide, solid waste is managed by spreading first, compacting and covering. The
waste is deposited on an escavated ground after weighing. Bulldozer spreads the waste after the
trucks have brought them from the collection stations. Compacting machine is used to compress
waste into small bundles or volume treatment and should be covered. Due to financial constraints
a lot of the waste are not covered causing harm. The landfill has cells in which solid waste are put
and they have base areas of 1800m2 and 20000m2. The cells are in a form of a plastic bowl. The
waste is compacted to 25 meters before it is covered with clay. Underneath the compacted waste
are Geo-membranes, perforated PVC pipes with Geo textile covering, and stone chippings. When
it rains, the leachate drips through the profile into the pipes, then flows into the pond for treatment.
The pipes are in the form of a bone of a fish which are interconnected. The chippings sieve coarse
materials from the leachate. There are also gas outlets with the help of air vents and also Gibeons
(large rocks) to make the system stable and they use it to produce a little bit of biogas. The clay
separates the sub base water from the leachate. The Geomembrane which consolidates the clay
liner and prevents contamination of groundwater. Geomembrane lining is protected by the
Geotextile layer. Two new cells were under construction to increase waste intake. According to
the guide, hazardous waste is treated by EPA and hospital wastes are not brought there. When the
landfill is exhausted, the area can be used for a recreational site.
LIQUID WASTE MANAGEMENT AT OTI LANDFILL MANAGEMENT
The treatment of liquid waste is natural with no anthropogenic activities. The leachate with faucal
sludge are brought to the land fill site. There are nine waste stabilization ponds at the site. Six are
anaerobic ponds. Among the six, two receive the faecal matter and four support it so that the
retainsive time would be longer. There is also one facultative pond and two aerobic or maturation
pond. In the anaerobic ponds which is 3m deep, the solid components move down into the pond
and undergo anaerobic decomposition due less oxygen in low portions of the pond. The anaerobic
ponds are linked to each other and when liquid waste is put there it has to stay for about sixty days
(60 days) before it’s discharged. The two facultative ponds are shallow and allows UV rays to
enter, killing some microorganism. The maturation pond has life in them like alligator, snakes and
when they start dying, it means, there’s a need to check the system and companies also take
samples to test if it’s safe to discharge. After the faucal waste has been treated, its treated waste
and leachate are collected in another pond called steel basin for some time before it is channeled
into a nearby river body (Oda River). There are also bore holes to check if there are ground water
contamination from the ponds.
CONTRIBUTION OF THE SITE TO THE ENVIRONMENT
Noise pollution from the operation of compactors, excavators, dozers and other related machines.
Contamination of the nearby river which is a source of drinking water to the inhabitants
downstream.
CONCLUSION
Although landfilling is the most preferred method of waste management in Ghana, it also has
challenges which include unsustainable financial support, poor maintenance and the like. I
therefore recommend that, there should be enough financial support from both private and public
agencies of concern to help engineer the system up to the set standards. Proper maintenance
approaches must be employed to prolong the lifespan of the equipment(s) used and the site as a
whole. There should be other alternatives such as waste reduction and recycling strategies so that
there will be no pressure on the site.
REFERENCES
Mr. Wiafe, Deputy Manager at Landfill Site
Dr.B.Fei-Baffour (Solid Waste Management Lecture Notes.)