KMA launches Environmental Sanitation Law Enforcement Drive
The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mrs Cecilia Abena Dapaah, has called on Ghanaians to adhere to good environmental practices to help the government’s efforts to develop the country.
She said a report by the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) of the World Bank indicated that poor sanitation cost Ghana over US$290 million annually, an amount she believed could be used to improve other sectors of the economy.
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“This sum is equivalent to US$12 per person in Ghana per year or 1.6 per cent of the national GDP,” she said, adding that “unfortunately, the cost of poor sanitation is inequitably distributed, with the highest economic burden falling disproportionately on the poorest in Ghana.”
Sanitation Enforcement law
Mrs Abena Dapaah was speaking at the inauguration of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly’s “ Environmental Sanitation Law Enforcement Drive” in Kumasi yesterday.
She lauded the KMA for the introduction of the sanitation law and an Enforcement Brigade, which, she explained, would help improve upon sanitation in the metropolis.
According to the minister, the Environmental Sanitation Policy (2010), the Decentralisation Policy and the Local Governance Act, 2016 empowered the MMDAs to enforce legislations and bye-laws in their areas of jurisdiction.
She called on other MMDAs to emulate the KMA.
She also handed over 1,000 waste bins to the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council to be distributed to MMDAs in the region to help win the sanitation fight.
She stated that a total of 20,000 bins had been set aside by the ministry to be distributed among the MMDAs across the 16 regions in the country to help control littering.
KMA Chief Executive
For his part, the Chief Executive of Kumasi, Mr Osei Asibey Antwi, assured the sanitation brigade that the assembly would give them the needed support to help improve sanitation in Kumasi.
He presented two pick up vehicles and six motorbikes to facilitate their movement within the metropolis.
According to Mr Antwi, the laws on sanitation would be enforced to the letter and called on residents to be law-abiding in order not to face the wrath of the assembly.