The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Julius Debrah, has expressed worry over the piles of rubbish abandoned along the streets, after last Saturday’s National Sanitation Day clean-up exercise.
He indicated that the situation had arisen because most of the chief executives of metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) had failed to comply with a directive to ensure the collection of all refuse immediately after the exercise.
“I must apologise that unfortunately most of the chief executives have failed to heed the directive we gave them prior to the national clean-up exercise,” he stated.
The minister expressed the worry when he paid a courtesy call on the management of MTN Ghana at its head office in Accra yesterday.
Reason for visit
The objective of the visit was to enable the minister to elicit the company’s support towards the sustenance of the national clean-up exercise and also seek ideas and suggestions on how to improve the national initiative.
Mr Debrah said the ministry had issued a directive to all chief executives of the MMDAs prior to the launch of the National Sanitation Day to ensure the timely collection of all refuse that would result from the exercise, and stressed that the development was discouraging for all people who made time to participate in the national exercise.
Performance undertaking
Mr Debrah said in view of what had happened, the chief executives of the MMDAs would be made to sign a performance undertaking to ensure that such negligence was not repeated.
The Corporate Service Executive of MTN Ghana, Mrs Cynthia Lumor, said cleanliness was very important because it was directly linked to good health, which was one of the focus areas of the MTN Ghana Foundation and said that the company would look at ways to help sustain the national event.
