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

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Mr. Siaw Agyepong, among other things, noted that the enforcement of sanitation by-laws is very important adding that without it, President Akufo-Addo’s vision to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa will only be a mirage.

He also called for support of sanitation management companies as a way of making positive strides in the sanitation sector.

According to him, without such support, waste management companies will be demotivated and may not be able to discharge their duties as expected of them.

[contextly_sidebar id=”k8lQ411IMIVLciNBUkN8M2SeLzc36OD9″]“We believe that enforcement of existing regulations and by laws will go a long way in helping the situation. We have so many numerous policies and regulations which lack enforcement. In Singapore and Rwanda as we refer to that is what they do. If we enforce the laws we will solve the sanitation problem,” he added.

Mr. Siaw made the proposal on Friday when he spoke at a forum organized by the Graphic Communications Group which assembled stakeholders in Accra to discuss solutions to Ghana’s sanitation menace.

It was on the theme: “Managing sanitation: How to lift the nation from filth.”

Various speakers including the Minister of Sanitation, Kofi Adda and others from the Environmental Protection Agency, Ghana Health Service among other agencies all given the chance to share their views on the theme.

The Zoomlion CEO, still speaking on the topic, complained about the delays in paying their debt by government.

He lamented that some of the debts have not been paid for close to three years, a situation he said has affected the quality of service provided by waste management companies.

“Government must support the private sector to achieve policy targets. Delays in payments affect quality of service. Some of our debts are two years and other are three years. A refuse truck is $95,000 and others are 102,000 euros. Now when you bring it in you are paying taxes and the trucks can only carry waste. It is not like a tipper truck that in case I’m not being paid I can go and haulage some sand and stones, apart from refuse it cannot carry anything else. So when you deprive the private sector the needed support, you kill the industry,” he said.

Mr. Siaw also called on government to intensify the distribution of refuse bins to households as well as advocacy programs to trigger attitudinal change of citizens towards sanitation.

“Enforce the use of bins in each household and a call for sustainable crusade against the filth. These are the way forward.”

Sanitation beyond aid

He also called on government to try and take the country off sanitation subventions from donor partners.

Mr. Siaw explained that government does not require aid to make the country clean urging it to put in place adequate measures to make this dream come through.

“More attention paid to sustainable sanitation financing.  We must a sustainable financing beyond aid. We don’t have to wait for donor to give us aid at their own time and pleasure then they give us aid for the sanitation sector. And as we have Ghana beyond aid mantra we should also strive to achieve waste beyond aid. Everything must be beyond aid,” he added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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