AMA finds land for a new cementery

THERE is increasing pressure on the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to find an alternative resting place for the dead as the present three cemeteries operated by the assembly are filled to capacity.
Dr Simpson Anim Boateng, Director of Public Health Department of the AMA, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that the said cemeteries were not “alarmingly full” adding “this no space thing would soon be over”.
The AMA’s health director observed that the assembly was responsible for all burials in the metropolis “and if there is no place for the dead in the metropolis, then this must be a concern”.
Dr Anim Boateng last year indicated that the three cemeteries managed by the assembly were “technically full” and could only operate for the next two years.
He, however, told this paper that the assembly had earmarked a place in Accra to replace the present burial sites and thus  gave the assurance that the lack of space  for the dead would soon be over.
Dr Anim Boateng would, however, not disclose the location of the said site except to say “the new site is well-situated in Accra and could even be larger than the Awudome cemetery”.
The Awudome cemetery is presently the largest and busiest graveyard among the 25 cemeteries operating in the Greater Accra Region. The walled cemetery is only younger to the Osu cemetery and currently receives about 30 bodies  a week  apart from being used as a site for mass burials.
Dr Anim Boateng bemoaned the inability of the assembly to re-use the present sites as burial grounds except after 25 years, a situation he attributed to the unprofessional manner in which those sites have been managed by people with little knowledge in that area.
“Cemeteries all over the world are built in a way that they can immediately be re-used after they are full. But, not in Ghana, because of the haphazard manner in which these cemeteries were managed”, the director noted.
As a result, Dr Anim Boateng said the assembly intended to apply the needed professional techniques required in managing the cemetery at the new site.
According to him, his outfit, if given the opportunity would promote cremation as an option to the fast diminishing land situation in the capital “but not the one presently done at the crematorium division of the Osu cemetery”.
“Not the physical burning of the dead where you see wood and all that. That one is very crude and degrading”, Dr Anim Boateng observed and noted that the modern form of cremation practised in other countries was cost effective and hygienic making a suitable option to the capital’s unavailable land.
The assembly presently  manages three cemeteries, the Awudome, Osu and the La cemeteries which add up to a total  of 25 cemeteries presently operating in the  region.
The three cemeteries have been in operational for well over 100 years, serving as resting places to over a million persons across all walks of life.