KMA launches ‘keep Kumasi clean and green’
The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) is to launch a new strategy to drive environmental cleanliness and restore Kumasi to its pride as the Garden City of West Africa.
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The exercise, to be known as ‘Operation Keep the City Green and Clean’, will involve the planting of trees and the education of the public against indiscriminate disposal of waste.
As part of the efforts to achieve the objective, the assembly has enrolled the services of 150 national service personnel who will be sent to all the nine sub-metros of the metropolis to educate the public on the need to keep the environment clean.
Town hall meetings
The Metropolitan Chief Executive of Kumasi, Mr Osei Assibey Antwi, who disclosed this at a Town Hall meeting at Tafo last Tuesday, explained that the move was to ensure that Kumasi regained its glory as the Garden City of West Africa and also restore order in the city.
The town hall meetings are organised by the Ministry of Information, in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, to explain government policies to the people and seek their views and concerns on issues.
He stated that one of the major problems confronting the city was waste management due to the high volumes of waste generated daily.
According to him, the city generated close to 2,000 tonnes of waste daily and “clearing this on daily basis is a huge challenge”.
Aside from the challenges posed by the high volumes of waste, Mr Antwi said the assembly was faced with inadequate environmental health staff.
Measures
Consequently, Mr Antwi said the assembly had employed 124 street sweepers and six supervisors and acquired more communal containers and trucks to help clear the waste generated by the city dwellers.
He added that the assembly would sensitise the public for one month to the need to keep the city clean and stop the indiscriminate disposal of waste.
According to him, although the assembly has a law to check indiscriminate waste disposal, there will be the need to refresh the minds of the public again, after which anyone caught in the act will be prosecuted.
He said the indiscipline would not be countenanced any longer and that it was time discipline was instilled in the metropolis.
Road network
On road networks, Mr Antwi said even though the metropolis had the longest road networks in the country of about 1850 km, only 10 per cent of it had been asphalted.
According to him, majority of the roads had not been asphalted and remained in poor conditions and hence would need immediate attention.
Besides that, he said most of the roads were also congested, thus putting pressure on the road and reducing their life span.
Mr Antwi said most of the roads that needed repairs had been identified and sent to Cabinet awaiting approval and budget allocation to award them on contracts.
He assured the people that most of the roads would receive attention to ease the pressure and congestion in the city.