The Government has begun an exercise to collect all refuse at the 17 dump sites across the national capital, Accra.<\/p>\n
The exercise has become necessary as a result of the increasing number of cholera cases and deaths in the Accra metropolis.<\/p>\n
Accra has been innundated with refuse, with refuse-collection companies refusing to clear them due to the government’s indebtedness to them.<\/p>\n
On Monday night, about 40 tipper trucks and other heavy equipment were deployed to the sites to cart the refuse to a new dumping site, provided in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n
The Vice President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, along with the Minister of Health, Dr Kweku Agyeman Mensah, and other Ministers, visited the Agbogbloshie Market, Sodom and \u00a0Gomorrah, parts of the Korle Lagoon and Kokomlemle.<\/p>\n
The Vice President expressed concern about the level of filth that has engulfed the capital.<\/p>\n
He said, the exercise is to immediately clear all the heaps of refuse in the metropolis to safeguard the health of Ghanaians, as the government works to find a lasting solution to waste disposal problem in the country.<\/p>\n
According to Mr. Amissah-Arthur, the government \u201chas been concerned about the cholera cases and the filth that is engulfing\u201d the capital.<\/p>\n
He stated that the government had \u201cobserved the accumulation of waste in the area\u201d and had initiated \u201can \u00a0immediate crash program to remove all the refuse heaps in Accra and allow the city manage, on a daily basis, the filth that is collected.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Vice-President expressed\u00a0 \u201cconcern about the lives of people\u201d in the light of the recent cholera outbreak in the metropolis.<\/p>\n
Over 500 cases of cholera have so far been recorded in Accra alone since June leading to about 15 deaths, \u00a0with the Public Health Directorate of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) warning \u00a0that the outbreak in the metropolis was gradually reaching an epidemic status.<\/p>\n
The Vice President called for an attitudinal change towards sanitation, saying ensuring hygiene is both personal and a shared responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to try to manage ourselves. There are some responsibilities for individuals that would not lead to the situation in the capital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to make it a sustainable effort on the part of the individuals themselves to manage this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vice President Amissah-Arthur, however, admitted that the country faces a huge challenge in \u201cachieving the millennium goals with regards to sanitation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the AMA boss says they are in the process of acquiring two landfill sites which will greatly help in managing waste in the national capital.<\/p>\n
The newly-commissioned Nsumia Waste Disposal facility began operations last Wednesday and has been engineered to contain refuse for the next two years and replace the closed Pantang landfill site.<\/p>\n
It is expected that the new landfill sites would reduce the pressure on the Kpone landfill site which, up until now, was the only site receiving garbage from Accra.<\/p>\n
The Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Chief Executive, Alfred Vanderpuiye, says the acquisition of the new landfill sites would \u201ccreate an opportunity to clear the refuse in town.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By: Edwin Kwakofi\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Government has begun an exercise to collect all refuse at the 17 dump sites across the national capital, Accra. The exercise has become necessary as a result of the increasing number of cholera cases and deaths in the Accra metropolis. Accra has been innundated with refuse, with refuse-collection companies refusing to clear them due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":36983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[508,279,574,38],"yoast_head":"\n