Zoomlion, AMA Clean Accra

Over 900 workers of waste management giant, Zoomlion Ghana Ltd, on Saturday morning took over the streets of Accra with cleansing tools to rid the streets and drains of filth.

The massive clean-up exercise, which was a joint collaboration between the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and Zoomlion saw the dredging of heavily choked drains, cutting down of overgrown weeds and the cleaning of major streets in the country’s capital.

The Minister in charge of Sanitation, Kofi Adda together with the Metropolitan Chief Executive of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah and the Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong visited various parts of the city to assess people’s compliance with the directive.

The areas inspected by the entourage were, the Obetsebi Lamptey Circle, Nima, Asylum down and parts of the Accra-Tema motorway amongst others.

Two Million Free Dustbins From Zoomlion

Seeing the quantum of waste collected during the exercise, Dr Siaw Agyepong said the most efficient scheme to deal with the cancer of “filth” and to overcome the chaos that it comes with is to ensure that every house gets a dustbin.

According to him, the treatment of waste has a pattern which should not be broken adding that, once waste is generated, it must be contained in a litter bin awaiting transportation to the disposal or treatment site.

To make this possible, the waste management expert has pledged to support the “filth fight” with a nationwide distribution of about two million dustbins.

According to him, the dustbins would be offered freely to the populace.

“I am pleading with the authorities of the districts and cities, the mayors, DCEs…they must enforce their bylaws and inspect to see if all houses have a dustbin…currently Zoomlion has a manufacturing plant that produces the dustbin…,” he said.

He continued: “The reason why people are dumping and littering into drains is that the container is not available and I think that  if we get the basis right, it will help us solve all these problems once and for all… let’s get a dustbin and our children will know how to litter into the waste bin, the family will know and then you reduce about 80% of the refuse getting outside.”

The Executive chairman also reassured Ghanaians that his company, Zoomlion is ready to help the government of Ghana fight the menace of filth.

“Every infrastructure needed by a country for treatment and transportation of waste, Zoomlion has it and I humbly want to say that we are ready to solve all the waste management problem in this country. No one has the expertise than Zoomlion,” he added.

Let’s Play Our Part

Speaking during the exercise, Mr Kofi Adda advised that every Ghanaian plays a part in ensuring that the vision of the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa comes through.

“If you catch anybody littering or defecating or urinating openly you have to bring that person to book. Take a picture of them and put in the print media or on TV,” he told journalists during the tour.

Meanwhile, the AMA Boss, said the assembly would vigorously enforce the sanitation by laws

“Next week we have had supports of pickups and we are deploying the pickups to continue with the enforcement. Those who litter the streets of Accra, the pickup which is branded clean Accra project with taskforce inside will arrest and prosecute people who litter the streets of Accra,” he said.

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]