The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mrs Cecilia Dapaah has directed Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to enforce their sanitation bye-laws to promote cleanliness in their jurisdictions.
She said one of the surest means to promote cleanliness and good hygiene practices was when MMDAs take sanitation seriously to achieve government’s promise in making Ghana the cleanest city in Africa.
The Minister gave the order when she toured the Ga South and West Municipal Assemblies yesterday in the Greater Accra Region, to ascertain the level of sanitation programmes undertaken by the assemblies.
The Minister also visited waste recycling companies, market centers and dumping sites to have first hand information on challenges confronting them.
Mrs Dapaah said, so far the Ministry had visited twenty-two MMDAs within the capital to ensure that sanitation becomes the major responsibility of the assemblies.
She asked MMDAs to distribute waste bins to households and market centres to promote waste collection as well as prevent the outbreak of Cholera.
The Minister said the Ministry was collating all sanitation programmes of MMDAs in order to hold them accountable when unable to achieve them.
Ms Dapaah said the exercise which commenced last month was part of the Ministry’s effort to see to it that every municipality within the region was adhering to policies that would promote good sanitation practices.
She said the exercise would be undertaken in other parts of regions to check progress of works implemented by MMDAs as far as sanitation was concerned.
Ms Dapaah tasked the Ga South and West Municipal Assemblies to ensure that hawking activities along the Weija Lake does not pollute the lake.
The Municipal Chief Executive of Ga South, Mr Joseph Stephen Nyarni said, although the assembly has provided waste bins to hawkers, some continue to litter.
She said the assembly would strengthen its monitoring task force to arrest hawkers and residents who does not comply with the assembly’s sanitation bye-laws.
BY BERNARD BENGHAN
