Zoomlion builds washrooms for Accra Central Police

The new facility has replaced the old one which was constructed about 100 years ago and has outlived its usefulness.

The facility was sponsored by the Zoomlion Company Limited at a cost of GH¢204,000.

Mr Alhassan said the facility was designed to provide the police community with quality environmental sanitation practice that would help them to properly dispose of solid waste.

That, he said, would help to prevent the spread of certain communicable diseases such as typhoid, worm infestation and diarrhoea.

He said over the years, the police administration had embarked upon various policy interventions aimed at improving the lives  and well-being of its personnel.

He said as law enforcement officers, the police believed that a clean environment was critical to a sound mind and improvement in professional service delivery to meet the growing expectation of the people and communities.

The acting IGP expressed his appreciation to the management of Zoomlion Company Limited for making the facility available to the Accra Central Police Command.

He expressed the hope that other organisations and public-spirited Ghanaians would emulate the example of Zoomlion to improve the infrastructure in the police communities.

Mr Alhassan challenged all members of the Accra Central Police to exhibit the highest sense of  maintenance of the facility.

For his part, the Executive Chairman of the Zoomlion Group of Companies, Dr Joseph Agyapong Siaw, said the company would soon start the distribution of 100,000 dust bins to all regional, district and unit commands of the Ghana Police Service.

He said five more modern toilet facilities would be provided for the police in five regions.

Dr Agyapong Siaw also promised to assist in the construction of an abandoned modern cell facility where the police could keep hardened criminals.

He said Zoomlion initiated the project about a year ago to reconstruct the broken-down toilet system of the Accra Central Police Command at a cost of GH¢204,000.

The Executive Chairman gave an assurance that Zoomlion was committed to the government’s sanitation agenda.

Earlier in a welcome address, the Accra Regional Police Commander, Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Patrick Timbilla, said the new facility had come to replace an outmoded pit latrine which had been in existence for nearly a century.

The facility, he said, had also outlived its usefulness and was on the verge of collapse.

He said during the early part of 2012, an epidemic nearly broke out at the Accra Central Police Station because the pit latrine built by the colonial masters had outlived its usefulness.

COP Timbilla indicated that the outmoded 12-seater place of convenience was serving over 500 police personnel and their immediate families.

The Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Dr Alfred Vanderpuje, said the Accra Metropolitan Assembly was committed to assist the police at all times.

Story by Mary Mensah