GARCC organises clean-up in Korle Klottey Municipality

• Residents of Nima desilting a gutter during the exercise Photo: Ebo Gorman

The Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council yesterday organised a clean-up in the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly.

It was part of the Homowo clean-up project initiated by the council to inculcate good sanitation practices in the region, as well as take action against persons who flout sanitation bye-laws.

Participants, which included personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces, Ghana Police Service, Ghana Fire Service (GNFS), residents and traders within the Korle Klottey Assembly, desilted the main drainage and cleared weeds in the municipality.

The Chief Director of Council, Mrs Lilian Baeka, said a total of 200 persons were summoned during the first phase of the exercise, which commenced somewhere last month in the region.

She noted that their offences included the absence of toilet facilities on their premises, preparing food on the street, dilapidated bathhouses, unsanitary bathhouses, as well as keeping and harbouring animals on-premises.

Mrs Baeka added that the offenders were summoned by the Environmental Health Officers of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Ayawaso Central, Ablekuma Central and Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly at the end of the exercise.

Moreover, she stated that the various Assembly’s Environmental Officers who had issued those summoned had been directed to enforce the bye-laws in promoting good sanitation practices in the region.

She said the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) had also been asked to sustain the cleanliness of the communities where the exercise took place and ensure similar exercises were done in other places.

Mrs Baeka reiterated the need for citizens to take a keen interest in sanitation issues since ensuring a clean environment was a shared responsibility.

She explained that a clean environment keeps the people in the community safe from diseases such as Cholera, Malaria, and other communicable diseases, and urged the public to report those who flout the sanitation laws to authorities.

She cautioned that stiffer punishment would be meted-out to sanitation offenders as the Council embarked on the second phase of the exercise in the Ayawaso West, La Dade-Kotopon, Ayawaso East and North Municipal Assembly.

The Environmental Health Officer for Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly, Mr Victor Acquaye, saidthe assembly was engaging with the communities to respect the sanitation and bye-laws, stressing that, all the public should participate in the exercise when it gets to their Assembly.

He said letters had already been sent to all “Chops Bars” and organisations to inform them of the clean-up, while an information van had also been deployed to announce the exercise in order to desist people from giving excuses for not being aware.

He said so far, the exercise had been very successful, and wish that the subsequent ones would be fully participated by the communities, adding that, the Assembly had intensified its enforcement exercise as part of efforts to keep the city clean.

BY BERNARD BENGHAN