A clean-up exercise to commemorate this year’s World Clean-up Day was held at Nima in the Ayawaso East Municipality in Accra on the theme: “Coming together to keep our cities and towns clean”.
It was organised by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR) in collaboration with the Ayawaso East Municipality over the weekend with the objective to tackle global waste problems and build up a new and sustainable world.
The four–hour exercise, led by the Chief Director of MSWR, Mr Noah Tumfo, began at 6:30 a.m. at the Nima roundabout through to the Nima market and its environs.
The Chief Director and his team were joined by traders, residents, and staff of the assembly where they picked up waste polythene bags and other plastic waste and litters from the streets, desilted the choked gutters and cleared heaps of refuse from the corners of the market.
Again, members from Zoomlion Ghana and Jekora Ventures were seen collecting the gathered refuse into their trash truck, while another van mounted with a speaker educated the public on the need to keep their environment clean.
Addressing journalists after the event, Mr Tumfo said as part of their mandate to ensure an effective and suitable management of waste materials, there was the need for his team to get on board to help tidy the environment.
“In order to ensure the day was well celebrated, we wrote letters to all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to help support keeping the environment tidy as we observe the World Clean-up day,” he said.
He mentioned that there was the need for more education to be given to the general public, especially those generating more refuse, in order to have cleaner cities and towns in the country.
“Looking around, it was noticed that people were not making conscious efforts in handling their waste and that was a problem, even though residents and traders were informed of the exercise earlier, most of them were unable to show up,” he lamented.
He, therefore, urged people to always be prepared to participate in such clean-up exercises because it was a shared responsibility to help reduce health risks. .
On her part, the Municipal Environmental Health Director (MEHD), Mrs Josephine Gawu, said it was important communities were kept clean to help prevent communicable diseases.
“We targeted the markets because those are places we mostly purchase food items, so hygiene and food safety must be the topmost priority,” she said.
Mrs Gawu notified the general public that enforcement of the laws, prosecutions and sensitisations were still ongoing till change on sanitation was reinstated in the country.
BY ANITA ANKRAH
