Compiled by Richard Attenkah
The Tema Metropolitan Assembly’s (TMA) “Stand for Clean Campaign” programme entered its second month last Saturday with residents of the Metropolis turning out in their numbers to join hands with newly recruited personnel from the Ghana Police Service, military, Fire Service, Zoomlion Ghana Limited and NADMO, among others.
Some high ranking officials who participated in the monthly clean up exercise were; Hon Isaac Ashai Odamtten – Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Maxwel Atingane – Tema Regional Police Commander and Mr. John Yabanni -Tema Metropolitan Health Director.
Briefing the press, Frank Asante, Public Relations Officer (PRO) for TMA tasked residents of the Metropolis to be sanitation conscious, given the fact that a healthy environment makes a healthy people.
According to him, waste management has always been a major challenge to the Assembly, especially judging from the fact that people throw away refuse indiscriminately. He explained that “People dispose of refuse into drains and open places, creating unsightly conditions resulting in choked drains and flooding whenever it rains.
“The rational is for the residents to observe the need for them to sanitize the environment and to keep living in a hygienic environment”.
According to Frank Asante, “the Assembly is enforcing strict sanitation bye-laws so as to maintain a clean, safe and serene environment in all settlements to promote the social, economic and physical well being of all sections of the population”.
He noted that the Assembly would collaborate with the newly set-up sanitation court to take the appropriate action to enforce the bye-laws so as to control sanitation and prevent filth within the assembly’s area of jurisdiction.
Asante further told the press that the Assembly intends to continue with the clean-up exercise, which will empower individuals to also do same by tidying up the environment.
The TMA PRO disclosed that his outfit would endeavour to provide the residents with logistics needed to embark on the clean up exercise to demonstrate its commitment towards ridding the Tema Metropolis of filth.
“We have relaxed the rules. We told them not to open their shops, but only a few of them observed it, but we will continue to educate them, because we want to attach a human face in our process but when it gets to the enforcement stage, we will not be lenient”, he stressed.