We’ve not failed in making Accra cleanest city – Dapaah

The Sanitation and Water Resources Minister-designate, Cecilia Dapaah has said contrary to public perception, the Akufo-Addo’s first administration did not fail in making Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

Taking her turn before the Appointments Committee of Parliament yesterday, February 23, 2021, Cecilia Dapaah said the motive is still on course to fulfilling the promise adding that, “when you start a process, it takes time to yield results.”

According to her, some government programmes like the provision of dust bins on streets to prevent littering as being key to this target.

She said, “Accra is on course to become the cleanest city that the President said in absolute terms. I think we are on course looking at what we started doing and what I continued from my colleague. Most important of all we have also through the GAMA [Greater Accra Metropolitan Area] project provided 33,00 household toilets.

“That is also part of the cleanliness projects we have undertaken. We are proposing that there should be a Sanitation Fund, either supplied by the government of Ghana or through a Sanitation Levy so that we will be well-equipped financially to take care of the gap in the financing of sanitation in this country.”

Answering to a question on how many Ghanaians benefitted from government free water programme in urban areas during stages of the Coronavirus pandemic in Ghana, she disclosed “The amount of money that we spent on the good people of Ghana to make sure there is no outbreak of cholera, dysentery, and other diseases during this COVID-19 period was GHS840 million. For urban water, 10 million people benefited but I’m yet to get the final figure for rural water.”