‘Enforce bye-laws on sanitation’
Staff of the Ghana Supply Company Limited (GSCL) joined personnel of the Ghana Police Service last Saturday to clear filth at the central business district of Accra.
The exercise was organised in partnership with the Ghana Goil Company Limited (GGCL) and over 200 people took part in it. The participants desilted gutters that were choked and painted portions of the street in white colours.
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As part of the exercise, the team also cleared refuse left over by traders and hawkers along the street at the Kingsway Mall, frontage of the offices of the Ghana Police Motor, Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), and parts of the Kantamanto Market.
Exercise
The Managing Director of GSCL, Mr Abraham Jawol, who briefed the media afterwards, said the exercise formed part of the company's corporate social responsibility to the city of Accra.
Additionally, he said the exercise was to announce the resurgence of the company which hitherto had become inactive, saying “our hope is to give the company more impetus and make it more competitive in the market”.
Advised
He urged residents, particularly the youth and traders in the markets to adopt a habit of cleanliness and desist from littering the environment. He said when the city was clean, it attracted tourists.
Mr Jawol said the exercise would continue until the city was rid of filth and stated that "it is only when we keep our environment clean that we can stay healthy and work hard at what we do".
For his part, the Station Officer at the Accra Central Police Station, Chief Inspector Samuel Kwame Ayim Mintah, called on the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to enforce bye-laws on sanitation and make sure the city was clean and beautiful at all times.
“It is awful to see traders leave heaps of garbage in the middle of the street at the close of trading most evenings.
“We know the AMA is doing its best but we will encourage it to strengthen its sanitation bye-laws and make sure individuals who go contrary to the laws are brought to book,” he said.
Sanitary inspectors
Chief Inspector Mintah, also called for the reintroduction of sanitary inspectors, known in local parlance as 'Saman Saman,’ to sensitise traders and residents in general and enforce cleanliness and hygienic practices.
The Chairman of the Ghana Supply Workers Local Union, Mr Philip Kofi Korsah, commended the workers who took part in the clean-up exercise and pledged the union’s readiness to support the President’s vision to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa.
He urged passengers who buy from hawkers along the city streets to leave wrappers and other refuse in the vehicles instead of dropping them on the streets.