Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) have been urged to give attention to waste management and devise innovative and modern ways in managing waste.
The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in a press statement issued in Accra yesterday and copied to the Ghanaian Times also urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to adopt new approaches to managing waste and ensure a safe and clean environment.
The statement also reminded them to sensitise their communities on proper waste disposal techniques and adopt waste segregation techniques in order to reduce the high cost of waste management.
The statement issued by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and signed on behalf of the sector Minister Hajia Alima Mahama, was in commemoration of the 2019 World Habitat Day on the theme “Frontier Technologies as an Innovative Tool to Transform Waste.”
The first Monday of October every year has been designated by the United Nations General Assembly as World Habitat Day to “reflect the real state of towns and cities, and to emphasise the fundamental right of all people to basic services such as housing and utilities.”
The statement entreated MMDAs to set aside a day to reflect on spatial planning of their towns and cities and the effective enforcement of the building code and environmental regulations and improvement in solid waste collection and management.”
It said assemblies should learn best practices and discuss innovative solutions and explore new technological solutions which have worked well elsewhere for implementation in order to improve waste management in their assemblies, adding that “Assemblies must think globally and act locally.”
The statement called on all the citizens to support the effort of the government and the MMDAs to keep the country clean, saying “waste management requires collective effort by all persons. We as Ghanaians need to be conscious of reducing waste and set targets to reduce, re-use and recycle waste generated in our homes.”
It said as part of commitment to properly manage waste, the government had established the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources and initiated the Ghana Secondary Cities Support Project.
“The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has launched the National Plastic Action Partnership to address the issues of waste in our cities. The National Plastic Action Plan will also create systems to change plastic waste into value added products. These initiatives feed directly into the President’s vision of making Accra, for that matter Ghana the cleanest city Africa,” statement said.
The statement further said the government was implementing the Ghana Urban Management Pilot Project in Kumasi, Tamale, Ho and Sekondi-Takoradi and engineered landfill cells have been constructed at both Kumasi and Ho to manage the increasing generation of waste.
By Times Reporter
