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Night
cleaning of Accra begins
Accra, Jan. 10, GNA - The Ministry of Local Government,
Rural Development and Environment, in collaboration with the
National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) on Monday began
an exercise for daily night cleaning of the Central Business
District of Accra.
A workforce of 1,000 people, drawn from the NYEP, are to
undertake the cleaning, ensure that drains in the District
become litter-free, and arrest people who throw refuse into
the drains.
The clean-up exercise, which started Monday evening at the
Accra Rawlings Park, formed part of an exercise to rid the
city of litter.
The exercise, meant to enhance the sanitation situation in
the city, is part of making the city spick and span for
Ghana's Golden Jubilee Celebrations.
Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng, Minister of Local Government,
Rural Development and Environment, who was present at the
beginning of the exercise, said the exercise would not be a
nine-day wonder as in previous exercises.
It would be sustained after the celebration, and there would
be constant supervision to ensure that refuse did not go
back into the drains.
The exercise went into gear under lights provided by big
trucks of Zoomlion, a private waste collection company in
Accra.
Young men and women, holding brooms and other shovels went
into action. They swept the streets, opened slabs and
de-silted gutters and emptied filled mini litterbins into
large trucks.
Mr Asamoah Boateng told journalists that the exercise was
being done in the night so that it would not interfere with
free flow of traffic and commercial activities during the
day.
He said the Ministry was organizing an extensive public
education along the clean-up exercise, adding that a change
in legislation was being pursued to update penalty for
sanitation offences.
Mr Asamoah Boateng said 40 people had been trained in legal
procedures for sanitation offences since the re-introduction
of the arrest and punishment to household sanitary offences,
popularly christened "Asaman sama" which took off in
Techiman last December.
The Minister said recruitment of sanitary officers was
underway in all the 10 regions, and was expected to be
completed by February.
He said waste segregation and recycling programmes would be
pursued.
GNA
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