Dr. Agyepong, who made these remarks at a stakeholders’ forum on sanitation organized in Accra, revealed that improper waste storage continues to hinder the progress of work done by the contracted waste collectors.

He said “when these wastes are not stored in a waste bin for collection by the waste contractor, then we are rest assured that it might end up at unauthorized places, hence the urgent need to ensure that households have waste bins and sanitation regulations are enforced to change attitudes for effective waste management.”

He stated that Zoomlion’s intervention by desilting the Odaw drains has averted a possible recurrence of the flood disaster which claimed several lives three years ago.

“Despite not being paid for our desilting works on the Odaw drain, Zoomlion is still committed to desilting the Odaw drain to save lives and properties which has been a phenomenon anytime we experience a heavy downpour of rains,” he added.

Dr. Agyepong noted the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant, waste transfer stations, plastics recycling, medical waste treatment and solving Ghana’s 100-year problem of discharging waste into the sea by providing a faecal treatment plant, as some innovations introduced by Zoomlion to solve Ghana’s waste management challenges.

He added that many provisions in Ghana’s sanitation policy in terms of physical infrastructure have been constructed by Zoomlion, emphasizing that the private sector has the capacity and that there is no need to re-invent gains made to this effect.

The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Joseph Kofi Adda, in his presentation, hinted of plans to deploy sanitation brigades to enforce sanitation laws and help shape attitudes towards good sanitation.

He eluded to the fact that, Environmental service providers have the capacity and there is the need for government to help them consolidate their efforts to effectively manage waste.

He commended Zoomlion for its introduction of waste trucks which has helped in managing waste and urged the company, despite debts owed it, to continually provide effective service to help solve Ghana’s waste challenge.

The Mayor of Accra, Mr. Mohammed Adjei Sowah, who also spoke as a panelist, revealed that the polluter payment system should allow those who create the waste to pay appropriate fees to enable effective collection.

Other stakeholders at the forum agreed that waste bin distribution, waste transfer stations, composting and recycling, landfill managemet and enforcing the sanitation laws and regulations is the way to go if Ghana wants to lift itself from the waste menace.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghan

The post Give all households bins for proper waste management – Zoomlion boss appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This is the belief of the owner of the biggest sanitation company in Ghana, Zoomlion Company Limited.

In his words, “When you look on the streets now, everywhere is clean, everywhere is neat. I said neat because you have not moved to other African countries. When you move to Gambia and other places and you come back to Accra, you think that Accra is the new London.”

Meanwhile, Sanitation Minister Kofi Adda, the man tasked with the enormous job of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa has decided to engage in a blame game for the filthy stinky Accra we call Ghana’s capital. At one of the numerous forums organized on addressing sanitation issues in the country, he blamed Zoomlion for reneging on their responsibility to sweep the streets and collect the refuse every day.

He lamented further about his disappointment that everywhere was engulfed in filth.

Ah! As if what we needed from a Sanitation Minister was an expression of disappointment about our dirty streets, a problem he has been tasked to deal with.

This government led by Nana Akufo Addo has demonstrated its abhorrence for the filth around us and its commitment to clean Ghana with the setting up of a Ministry of Sanitation (the first in the history of Ghana). But largely, all that has been done to a clean Ghana so far has been talk, talk and some more talk.

Almost every week, forums are held by various bodies, and sanitation policies and strategies are repeated again and again. Indeed, if talks were what we needed to rid Accra of filth, Ghana would have accomplished this a long time ago and our streets would be spotless.

Sadly, that isn’t the case. It’s clear we don’t need any more talk, but action. At one of the several forums, it was revealed that this country has over 100 policies on sanitation. So really, what do we hope to achieve with these relatively needless talks?

On paper, the over 200 Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies have by-laws that should ensure the various MMDAs are clean; it should not have to take the President to declare an agenda to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

For example, the third Saturday of every month is supposed to be observed as the “Health Day” under the AMA by-laws. But until the then Local Government Minister declared the first Saturday of every month a Sanitation Day, the Health Day remained only in theory for a better part of the years.

The by-laws have other fantastic regulations to help keep the city clean. Unfortunately, that is how far we have gone in keeping Ghana clean; we only enact the laws, take no action or pretend to take a little action.

The President went ahead to launch his government’s sanitation campaign. At the launch, he announced that all government departments and agencies will designate two officers each as sanitation marshals who will oversee compliance with sanitation laws in their various offices. The President didn’t only make the announcement; he gave timelines too. The heads of the various departments had one week, from the day of the launch, to identify and assign these officers who were to receive training from the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate.

President Akufo-Addo also served notice that Ministers and other directors of government agencies will be held accountable for any lapses in compliance with these directives.

It’s been four months and counting…

In the meantime, all of the country’s public places continue to be inundated with filth. Market women sell fresh fruits, fish and vegetables, among other things, close to heaps of refuse. A significant number of the gutters in the capital are choked. For many Ghanaians, the lack of landfill sites means their refuse is dumped directly into open drains and open spaces.

The lack of landfill sites is probably the government’s biggest challenge in tackling this sanitation menace, but this also presents the perfect opportunity to device other innovative means to turn our waste problem around. This is a government that has promised to build factories in all 216 districts across the country. A few private individuals are basically squeezing water out of stones to run recycling factories – Safisana and Fibrewealth easily come to mind. These two recycling companies and a few more can create millions of cedis each day from recycling alone with the right amount of support.

A UNICEF report on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ranks Ghana the seventh worst country in the world with regards to access to basic sanitation. The bigger problem here is that about 7,332 basic schools in the country do not have toilet facilities. This means the thousands of school pupils in basic schools are accustomed to defecating in the open. This is the root of our problem. Children grow up with the mindset of finding their own means when nature calls.

I have seen and heard more than enough stories that show our sanitation problem is intrinsic. If not, how does the EL Wak Stadium in Accra suddenly turn into a mini landfill site when thousands of job seekers throng there? These are people, who have had, at the very least, some basic education. And you know how huge the problem is when you spot a university student carelessly dropping a can into a dustbin clearly marked “plastic” on a university campus. These are not just fabrications. These have really happened and continue to happen every day. Once I walked up to police officers at the Adentan Police station and asked to use the washroom. A policewoman sharply retorted, “just go down there and sort yourself out.” Interestingly, there was no washroom “down there”.

What can be done?

It was refreshing to hear the president announce that “every day is sanitation day”. And indeed, every day is actually “sanitation day” since Accra alone generates about 2,800 tonnes of waste daily.

But introducing new sanitation policies every new day isn’t the magic potion to our problem. A chunk of the solution can be found in these words of the former President, Jerry John Rawlings who has been appointed a sanitation ambassador by the AMA, “You are lucky the position given to me is just a ceremonial one. If I was acting in the actual capacity, I would jail about three to five people a week till Accra becomes clean again”. Yes, the law enforcers should punish people who freely break the sanitation laws. Let sanitation offenders be handed non-custodial sentences. Let the public see offenders sweeping the markets, or desilting the gutters etc. This will come at very little cost to us as a people but will go a long way to help solve Ghana’s sanitation problem; much of which is attitudinal.

At a recent program, the president said our biggest challenge as a people, was poverty. But Mr President, I beg to differ. Our biggest challenge as a people is sanitation.

A clean city is a clean and healthy people. A clean and healthy people is a wealthy city. Enough of the talking. Let’s act.
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By: Eugenia Tenkorang/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Eugenia writes: Talking our way to a cleaner Accra appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The three,  Mawuli Kumodzie, Peter Nytel and Abdul Razak, who were sentenced on their own plea were unable to pay a GH₵600.00 fine equivalent to 50 penalty units when they appeared before the court on Tuesday 13th March 2018, together with some four  other  persons for contravening Act 851 section 56 (a) and (b) of the Public Health Act 2012.

[contextly_sidebar id=”o2xCj42z4mjZmrmL6F22ywFU9ynTqqJw”]The prosecutor , Nii Okaine Aryee, told the court presided over by Her Ladyship Juliet Duduo that the accused persons were arrested by the Assembly’s task-force on 12th March, 2018, at about 4:30am, while on their routine checks around the central business district for dumping refuse at unauthorized places.

The four, namely Diana Doudu,19, Regina Tsotsoo Money, 41, Elizabeth Serwaa 47, and Grace Akolatse, 38, however managed to pay the GH 600 fine each totaling 4,200 Ghana cedis.

However, the cases of Sulley Muntari , 21, Mathew Akrofi 45, Michael Oko 24 and Hakeem Salifu 26, have been adjourned to 5th April, 2018.

As part of efforts to improve sanitation in the city, the AMA has deployed its task-force to patrol the city especially at dawn and in the night, which are known to  be periods when people dump rubbish on the streets.

The Assembly is therefore urging city dwellers to be disciplined and desist from acts that are against its by-laws or risk being prosecuted.

Government through the Sanitation and Water Resources Ministry has rolled out some initiatives to tackle filth in the country particularly in Accra, but not much has happened.

Many have thus expressed doubt about the ability of government to fulfill President Akufo-Addo’s pledge of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Three jailed 2-yrs for indiscriminate dumping of waste appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Many people within the country’s capital have in the past one year shown an open disgust at the filth that engulfs the city.

Some, including me, have even gone ahead to call for the head of Sanitation and Water Resources Minister, Kofi Adda for the filth.

We were even angrier when the Minister responded with the speed of lightening to this tweet of the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, Andrew Barnes

The backlash was very harsh both at city authorities and the High Commissioner that the Diplomat was forced to issue a disclaimer

This is supposed to show how badly we abhor filth. But this is actually how seriously we take the fight against filth.

Make no mistake, this picture was taken only on Sunday March 11, 2018 at about 4:45pm.

I am reliably informed that this has been there for close to two weeks now.

Ghana in 2015 was ranked the 7^th dirtiest nation in the world despite the amount of money pumped into the sanitation sector by government and donor partners.

Yes, we can lash out at City Authorities, or even the Sanitation Minister all we want, but Accra will continue to be dirty if we don’t change our ways.

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By: Sixtus Dong Ullo/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Fight against filth is a war against attitude [Article] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The 2-hour policy roundtable event, which had in attendance various policymakers and stakeholders was on the theme: Environmental Discipline- Dealing with filth in Accra.

The event was also aimed at putting pressure on the relevant authorities to tackle the unsanitary conditions in the country, as well changing negative attitudes of people towards sanitation.

The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Joseph Kofi Adda, and Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah discussed various themes of the campaign at the event.

At the end of deliberations, participants came up with the following recommendations which have been captured in the communique below:

One Ghana Movement communique

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Ghana Action Series participants’ tips on tackling filth [Full Text] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

But the story is different today.

After auditing some prime areas in Accra, Citi News gathered that parts Ghana’s capital city are bushy, filthy and stinky.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had promised to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa after his tenure but if nothing is done immediately, his dream would only be a mirage.

At Madina, heaps of refuse were seen at the base of almost every street light pole.

The bottom of the huge concrete pillars supporting an uncompleted footbridge has become a urinal and a refuse site.

The stench that emanates from the spot is so strong that it can knock one out if one stays in the area for too long.

Opposite Peter Pan restaurant is perhaps the heaviest heap of garbage.

There are sacks, cartons and big black poly bags full of refuse generated by market and motorist.

A ‘trotro’ driver who spoke to Citi News said “no sensible person will be happy with this situation.”

But he was seen throwing refuse from his van and justified his action arguing that there is a heap of refuse there already.

All these are happening under the nose of the La-Nkwatanang Municipal Office which is just a junction away and in the heart of a disorderly and dirty market.

From Madina to Accra, one can see over grown bushes in between lanes and along the roads. Trees planted here do not number more than five.

Their fate hang in a balance as the battle with wild weed to survive.

Labourers were however seen clearing the weeds from the Ghana Standards Board a few distance beyond Okponglo.

Spanner, a popular bus stop at the heart of Villa Montecello, Accra Mall and the Africa Regent Hotel are both engulfed in bush and garbage at the same time.

After a long week of hard work, city dwellers desirous of recreating at the beach behind Art Center will be completely turned off given that the beach lives up to the name its squatters have given it: ‘Borla Beach’ to wit Beach of Garbage.

Driving around the city with your family on a weekend should be fun. But not in Accra as almost every turn in the capital is bushy, filthy and stinky.

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By: Caleb Kudah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Filth, weeds engulf Accra as Ghanaians ditch Sanitation Day [Photos] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Mr. Szradosi spoke at the Brong Ahafo Regional launch of the Ghana District League Table in Sunyani at the week-end that the World Bank could not bring itself to understand why open defecation should still persist in the country, in spite of the bank’s assistance to the nation to eradicate the unhygienic practice.

In the words of the UNICEF Ambassador, the World Bank is unhappy that many Ghanaians still lacked access to basic sanitary facilities, particularly, household toilets.

He asked for a directive from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to push MMDAs “to tackle the issue of sanitation in more proactive manner.”

We need no ghost to tell anybody that we have not been serious with this problem which has been with us for quite a long time now. That this country is dirty is as clear as today is Tuesday.  Anytime it rains, receding waters leave debris containing many horrible things. Sadly, human excreta is ever present. Apparently, some Ghanaians, and they are not only those who have not benefitted from education, throw rubbish from their households into flood waters.

It chokes our gutters and leaves our streets with dirt and a very offensive stench. It has reached a crescendo and overwhelmed our Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.

The Chronicle would like to believe that this society would seriously consider the need to rid our country off filth. And that it is this necessity that brought about the compilation of the league table to examine the various assemblies.  The idea is that the naming and shaming of assemblies that are not doing well would prompt them to take moving rubbish seriously.

Evidence abounds that most assemblies are failing the litmus test. What is irritating is the failure of this society to end open defecation, 60 years after ending colonial rule.

It is not the best of news to report that many households at the centre of the earth are still without toilets in the 21^st Century. Along the coast, for instance, our towns and villages have sandy beaches which should attract tourist in their droves. Unfortunately, with many local people easing themselves openly at the beaches, the sand and sun, which is a tourist paradise, have failed to attract tourists because of the offensive smell emanating from the beaches, as well as dirt which litter these places.

When the World Bank threatens to withdraw vital funding from the state as a result of this nation’s failure to deal with sanitation challenges and open defecation, the Breton Woods Institution is threatening to punish this country for failing to keep the country clean.

In times past, the presence of sanitary inspectors acted as checks on the failure of society to clean itself up. The Chronicle is asking the central government to get tough and force through legislation that would compel the population into the act of keeping our neighbourhoods clean. We are recommending stiffer sentences for those openly littering the society, as well as defecating openly.

Some of our neighbouring countries have succeeded in ending open defecation, especially at the beaches. In Togo, Benin and La Cote d’Ivoire, the beaches are clean and smell good. There is no earthly reason why this country cannot follow suit. We would like to recommend the carrot and stick approach to solving the problem.

We believe that providing toilets at the various beaches, while employing inspectors to summon offenders to courts to be given stiff penalties, would help stop open defecation.

Our households, streets and neighbourhoods could respond to the cleanliness test, if the authorities would severely punish those littering about. Putting rubbish into flood waters when it rains, must also be seriously punished.

We do not need lectures from the World Bank to keep our environments clean. We have to do it without prompting.

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Source: The Ghanaian Chronicle

The post When the World Bank gets mad over our filth [Article] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.