The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has pledged support to ensure that President Akufo-Addo’s vision to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa becomes a reality.
Speaking at a press conference, Tuesday, May 9, 2017, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mohammed Adjei Sowah said the Assembly has rolled out plans to enforce the sanitation bye-laws to sanction persons who go contrary to the laws in order to keep the capital city clean.
According to the Mayor of Accra, the Assembly is focused on waste management and beautification of the city and indicated their preparedness to work alongside the Ministry of Sanitation, capable private sector sanitation enterprises and other partners to complement their efforts in pursuing this agenda.
President Akufo-Addo on the 23rd April, 2017 made a public declaration of the government’s vision to make Accra the cleanest, and by extension the most beautiful City of Africa.
Read the full Statement below.
On the 23rd April, 2017 the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, made a public declaration of the government’s vision to make Accra the cleanest, and by extension the most beautiful City of Africa. To be clear the vision is not merely to keep Accra clean.
It is to make the City of Accra cleaner and more beautiful than Nairobi in Kenya, Johannesburg & Cape Town in South Africa and Port Louis in Mauritius, the acclaimed cleanest cities in Africa. It is a vision to which existing action plans and practices may not be able to attain.
The vision requires a sea change in policy, action plans, city cleaning approaches, enforcement mechanisms and ATTITUDES. Being managers of the City of Accra, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly in support of the policy directives of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources we wish to assure the President that we see his vision as realistic and achievable within the time frame and ready to take on the challenge.
The President’s vision is coming against the background of a 2015 joint report of the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund that ranked Ghana the 7th dirtiest country in the World.
It is hard to deny the enormity and urgency of the sanitation challenge of Accra that has been petrifying Accra city dwellers for decades. Clean means clean. It means zero tolerance for filth, pollution and unauthorized developments.
It also means high citywide appetite for clean environment, clean water and orderly developments. Leapfrogging from one of the dirtiest to the cleanest in Africa is, undeniably an uphill task and requires a lot more than slogans, rhetorics, speeches and sound bites, even though these may be important on occasions to shape behaviors and mobilize support for the vision.
This vision will be achieved if residents, visitors, religious bodies, businesses, development partners, charities and the public sector agencies operating in the city really commit to it.
It requires a kind of concerted leadership, commitment and ATTITUDES by all that are overtly different from the kind that created, encouraged and tolerated the squalor in the first place.
It also requires unbending political will, the president has set the tone, the Ministry of Sanitation will give policy directions and AMA will take it forward. We will work concurrently with capable private sector sanitation enterprises and other partners to supplement the efforts of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in implementing the Clean Accra Charter and Action Plans that will aid the realization of the vision.
We will be tough on excessive generation and indiscriminate disposal of all types of waste – solid, liquid, medical, hazardous, emissions as well as land, water and atmospheric pollution.
We will not renege on our efforts at stopping the disposal of dirty oil into the soil by automobile mechanics, incessant burning of e-waste on bare ground and disposal of untreated biomedical waste into the ground without treatment.
In pursuit of this vision, our focus will be on – (1) waste management, (2) beautification of the City and (3) law enforcement.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
a. WASTE PREVENTION AND REDUCTION
The first step to ridding the city of filth and pollution is to prevent or cut back on waste generation at the source. The vast majority of the city’s waste comes from the type of materials and methods used in producing the products we use or consume, packaging and construction. Many of these are non-reusable, non-biodegradable and sometimes harmful to human health. We shall work with relevant bodies and partners to reduce the use of non-compostable materials such as plastics in the design and manufacturing of products, carrier bags and packaging.
Companies within the city must begin to rethink the way products are designed, manufactured and packaged, bearing in mind the need to reduce waste and use ingredients that are safely reusable, recyclable or returnable to the natural system. Importers must do likewise.
b. DIGNIFIED DISPOSAL OF WASTE
We are galvanizing a very strong public objection against undignified waste disposal in the city. It is important that we shift our mindset and openly condemn undignified garbage disposal including littering of streets, gutters and public places, open defecation, dumping of untreated effluent and industrial waste into the Odaw – Korle Lagoon and other water bodies and so forth. There will be sustained public education on acceptable cleanliness practices.
On the part of AMA, we shall continue to work with our sanitation service providers, private sector partners, NGOs and the international partners to widen access to convenient, safe, sustainable and culturally appropriate dignified sanitation facilities and services.
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s policy of Polluter-Pay System has it that waste generators are responsible for the disposal of the waste they generate.
Under this policy, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s area is currently divided into 15 service zones and outsourced to 11 private sanitation service providers as under listed;
NAME OF COMPANY SERVICE ZONES
Metropolitan Waste and Allied Services Part of Ablekuma Central Sub Metro
Part of Okaikoi North Sub Metro
Part of Ablekuma South Sub Metro
Liberty Waste Services Part of Ablekuma South Sub Metro
Tropical Waste Services Part of Ashiedu Keteke Sub Metro
Jekora Ventures Limited Osu Klottey Sub Metro
Meskworld Company Limited Part of Ashiedu Keteke Sub Metro
Platinum Municipal Services Part of Ayawaso East Sub Metro
Yafuru Waste Services Part of Okaikoi North Sub Metro
J.Stanley-Owusu & Co. Ltd. Okaikoi South Sub Metro
Aryeetey Brothers Co. Ltd Part of Ayawaso East Sub Metro
Asadu Royal Seed Limited Ablekuma North Sub Metro
Ayawaso West Sub Metro
Zoomlion Domestic Services Ayawaso Central Sub Metro
Part of Ablekuma Central Sub Metro
As part of the above scheme, there will be an intensified distribution of garbage bins in the City of Accra. This will tremendously ensure convenient and reliable household waste collection and dignified waste disposal.
We are therefore directing all residents to register with the service provider assigned in their respective areas. We shall commission a new transfer station at Achimota (owned by a private sanitation company) to provide an additional site for trucks and tricycles to dump waste.
This will reduce the distance for carting waste to the final disposal site. It is important to note that operating waste dumping sites without permit is illegal and there will be effective enforcement.
We wish to assure the general public that all unapproved refuse heaps anywhere in the city will be evacuated and closed down permanently fly tipping (or fly-dumping) that is dumping of garbage or large items onto unapproved sites or places will be met with prosecutions or large fines. A dedicated WhatsApp hotline numbers; 0202464444 OR 0202464411 are the hotlines for reporting and sending photographic evidence of fly tipping to AMA. “We must be citizens and not spectators”. City dwellers must be the watchdogs and ensure that undignified waste disposals are photographed and reported to AMA for immediate action.
Daily sanitary inspection in which environmental health inspectors conduct house-to-house inspections of potential waste generation centres such as households, institutions, markets, medical facilities and so forth to check whether the laws on health and hygiene are adhered to, will be reinvigorated; Offenders will be prosecuted uncompromisingly or face huge fines; It is important to note that offenders can even be jailed.
Public patronage of the National Sanitation Day (first Saturday of every new month) is waning woefully. To ensure compliance, the AMA will pay attention to inspection and enforcement of its bylaws on every National Sanitation Day there will be a special sanitation inspection and enforcement on every national sanitation day; We note with concern the nuisance that the unlicensed waste collection tricycles have been causing in the city. Steps are underway to regulate their operations.
The Assembly is also directing that, the erecting of illegal structures including bill boards and signages and selling at unauthorized places should cease forthwith. Over the past few days, the Assembly has started clearing the Kwame Nkrumah interchange of such structures and traders and we intend to extend this exercise to cover all areas within the metropolis.
It is also paramount that residences of Accra change their attitude towards the storage and disposal of their household waste. It must be emphasized that without change of attitude it will be impossible to achieve the vision that we have set for ourselves.
c. INCREASE REUSE AND RECYCLE
We encourage, educate and engage with people and organizations to adopt a reuse or recycle culture to reduce the volume of waste that needs to be disposed. Don’t throw it away, if it can be reused or recycled.
2. BEAUTIFICATION
In addition to being clean, Accra must look attractive at all time to give residents and visitors a sense of pride. Beautiful cities attract talents, investments and economic activities thereby increasing the city’s unique contribution to the nation’s GDP.
Beautification is also a known driver of tourism, which in turn enhances business activities in the city.
To this end we shall soon publish the Accra City Beautification Plan, which will layout our action plans for promoting stunning architectural designs, urban landscaping, beatification of open spaces and tree planting activities among others.
3. ENFORCEMENT OF BY LAWS
Existing by laws will be stringently enforced
However in view of the new vision, we have noted that some of our by-laws would need revision to bring them in line. We have therefore initiated a holistic review of the by-laws.
As part of this review penal consequences for breaching the laws of the city will be heightened. Offenders will no longer be handled with kids’ gloves.
There will be an ongoing public education to make the public aware of the requirements of the law.
4. CONCULSION
It is time for us to rise to the challenge of making Accra the cleanest City in Africa. It is a realistic and achievable vision. But it is one that requires concerted efforts. AMA in collaboration with its partners pledges to show leadership and commitment to the course and will show tangible progress in the coming weeks.
I thank you all for your time and attention. It is our wish that the media will take up the challenge as part of your corporate social responsibility and make the vision a reality.
We call on all to publicly endorse the President’s vision for the city as a sign of commitment to doing what is within our means to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa.
Thank you and may Allah bless us all.
