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The assembly members who make up the Ahanta West District Assembly in the Western Region have called for the abrogation of all government contracts with waste management companies, particularly, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, for failing to live up to their contractual agreements. According to the aggrieved Assembly Members, the contracts entered into on behalf of the government by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) with the waste companies have not yielded any benefit to the citizenry as uncollected garbage continue to pile up in the districts. Additionally, the assemblies have had to use their own resources to clear up refuse when companies have been paid to do so. The assembly members particularly singled out Zoomlion as a waste management company which had failed to execute its part of the contract, despite huge sums of money paid to it at source from the coffers of the district assemblies. The assembly members, who claim their electoral areas are overwhelmed with uncollected garbage, say the state had been given a raw deal in its contracts with sanitation and waste management companies. Speaking in an interview with the assembly members, Mr. Nicholas Nyankom, Spokesperson of the caucus, told this reporter that the members would be forwarding a petition to the Ministry of Local Government in their crusade to ensure that it abrogates all contract with the waste management companies. Additionally, they would assign reasons and figures to the Ministry in their petition, as to why it was urgent and material for all contracts with the sanitation companies abrogated. Mr. Nyankom, who doubles as the Chairman of the Ahanta West Assembly Sub-committee on Environment and Sanitation, noted that the assembly has had to cough up a total of GH�25,000 from the month of January to June to clear waste in the district, whilst the sanitation company, Zoomlion, which was in charge of waste collection and evacuation, had gone to sleep. He said for the last six months, Zoomlion had failed to clear waste in the district, a situation he described as �unpalatable�. This sad development, he explained, justified why it was material for the MLGRD to abrogate all contracts with the sanitation companies, particularly Zoomlion Company. He added: �If the MLGRD is deducting from the assembly coffers huge sums of monies to pay sanitation companies, including Zoomlion, yet they are not doing their work, then what is the sense in continuing with the contract?� Mr. Yankom queried. The District Chief Executive for the area, Joseph Dofoyena, on his part, expressed worry over the waste management company�s dereliction of duty in the district. He told The Chronicle that he had spoken to the regional head of Zoomlion Company for an explanation on why his company had for over five months failed to cart waste in the district. The Zoomlion head explained that the situation was a result of the fact that the company had no District Coordinator who would supervise the carting of the waste in the Ahanta District. Meanwhile, the Western Regional Coordinator of the National Disaster and Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr. Japhet Baidoo, has added his voice to calls for all contracts with waste management companies abrogated as part of measures to finding a lasting solution to sanitation problems in the country. Speaking on Twin-City Radio, an affiliate of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Japhet Baidoo expressed worry over the filth that had engulfed the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis. In Sekondi-Takoradi, Zoomlion Company, which is in charge of waste collection and evacuation, has lost the battle for which it was contracted. For now, the Oil City is filthy, because Zoomlion has not been able to collect the waste.