Of waste facility siting and relational geographies of place: Peri-urban landfills, community resistance and the politics of land control in Ghana

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dc.contributor.authorOteng-Ababio, M.
dc.contributor.authorKansanga, M.M.
dc.contributor.authorAhmed, A.
dc.contributor.authorKuusaana, E.D.
dc.contributor.authorLuginaah, I.
dc.date.accessioned2020-07-20T11:52:24Z
dc.date.available2020-07-20T11:52:24Z
dc.date.issued2020-04-02
dc.descriptionResearch Articleen_US
dc.description.abstractThe siting of landfills in peri-urban spaces is seen as both a solution to land scarcity in inner cities and a development opportunity for rural hinterlands. Despite the widespread reliance on landfills for managing urban waste in Ghana, their operation tends to ignite land use conflicts at different scales. However, existing studies on the drivers of these conflicts have mostly failed to situate local resistance within the broader political economy of land control. Drawing on a longstanding landfill conflict in northern Ghana, this contribution shows how under the guise of landfills, the land question in peri-urban spaces is contested. While at face value the landfill struggle appears to be fuelled by the associated poor environmental conditions and health risks of waste from the inner city, our findings reveal the role of diverse incongruities including: (i) the crafty tactics deployed by state institutions in land acquisition for 'public interest', (ii) payment of unrealistic consideration, and (iii) diversion of designated public lands to undeclared uses. Amid these contestations, the notion of territorial belonging by peri-urban communities often runs counter to statutory ordering by the government who hold such hitherto private lands for ‘public interest’. Powerful local actors such as chiefs hide behind community agitations with hopes of controlling land if such contestations materialize. These dynamics have ramifications for the achievement of the New Urban Agenda of Habitat III, which focuses on secondary cities. A sustainable resolution of landfill-related conflicts must therefore begin with addressing the land question in peri-urban spaces.en_US
dc.identifier.otherhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104674
dc.identifier.urihttp://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/handle/123456789/35659
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherLand Use Policyen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries96;
dc.subjectLandfillsen_US
dc.subjectstatutory land acquisitionen_US
dc.subjectcommunity resistanceen_US
dc.subjectperi-urban spacesen_US
dc.subjectGhanaen_US
dc.titleOf waste facility siting and relational geographies of place: Peri-urban landfills, community resistance and the politics of land control in Ghanaen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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