The Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mrs Elizabeth Kwatsoe Tawiah Sackey, says the Assembly is working with the Judiciary towards establishing more sanitation courts in the metropolis to speedily deal with sanitation-related offences.
“The city of Accra alone generates waste of over 1,800 tones daily, the highest so far in the country. Unfortunately, most of these wastes are not properly disposed of, thereby creating serious health challenges for the citizens,” she stated.
To address this, more than 300 sanitary offenders, from January to date, have been prosecuted and heavy fines placed on them to serve as a deterrent to others.
Mrs Sackey made this known when she launched the ‘Street Sweepers’ initiative in collaboration with betPawa, a gaming company and the headline sponsor of the Ghana Premier League.
The sweepers would focus on four major ceremonial streets: John Evans Atta Mills High Street, Asafoatse Nettey Road, Kinbu Gardens through Octagon and back, and Circle to Kaneshie First Light.
She said any sanitation offender on these routes and in the city generally, would be dealt with according to the laws.
The Assembly has also initiated a Source Separation and Compost Project to divert 50 per cent of the municipal solid waste from the landfill site in line with the Accra Climate Action Plan.
Others are the Zero Waste Street Project, which is a sister city co-operation between Accra and Paris to make citizens own their streets and ensure they are always clean.
Mrs Sackey said the Assembly would distribute special poly bags to street hawkers and traders to control litter within the Central Business District.
“In the coming year, some of the informal waste workers and migrants would be enrolled onto the National Health Insurance Scheme and provided with protective clothing under the Assembly’s collaboration with the Mayor’s Migration Council,” she stated.
