TWIN-CITY RESIDENTS UNAHPPY WITH REFUSE COLLECTORS (PAGE 29, AUGUST 18, 2010)

RESIDENTS in the twin-city of Sekondi/Takoradi are questioning the roadworthiness of vehicles of some of the refuse collectors in the metropolis.
They also want to know why the Sekondi/ Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) has released its refuse containers that are supposed to be placed in communities to private companies.
The residents are appalled that the vehicles collecting refuse are themselves in a bad state, littering the streets with the waste that they have collected as they drive through the metropolis.
When the Daily Graphic came across one of the vehicles with the inscription ABC, it was carrying a container that was supposed to be placed at one location earmarked for the community to dump their waste.
That aside, the container itself was longer than the base called the “roller” on which it was placed, and the vehicle did not even have a DVLA registration number at the back.
Again, the container had been strapped to the base with chains, a tie and ropes.
The Daily Graphic also spotted the truck again at about 2:45p.m. parked in the middle of the road in front of the SNNIT offices in Takoradi, thereby slowing vehicular movement.
Apparently, it had developed a fault and the driver’s mates had to get down and drag the heaps of refuse on the streets and throw them into the container through the windows.
In their quest to finish on time, the refuse collectors spilled some of the refuse into nearby gutters and on the streets.
When the Daily Graphic contacted the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly to find out if they considered how equipped companies were before awarding contracts to them, official sources said the assembly were aware that some companies were using trucks fixed with long containers, belonging to the assembly which were given to them by the assembly.
The sources indicated that they were aware of the dangers posed by strapping the long containers on the shorter ‘rollers’ and said that the situation persisted due to a directive from a source that they did not disclose.