The handover ceremony
As part of efforts to sustain proper sanitation in the country, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR), in partnership with Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL), has donated five brand new double cabin pickup vehicles to the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).
The move is to enable personnel of the GAF to monitor and ensure compliance with environmental bye-laws in Accra and other regional capitals and big cities.
Making the presentation at Burma Camp in Accra on Friday, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, said “we are by this gesture appreciating the efforts of the Armed Forces in the fight to ensure clean environs of our cities.”
She said it was imperative for everybody to strive to practise good personal hygiene and also observe good sanitation practices.
“In our pursuit of general cleanliness, we should behave like animals who always keep their environs clean,” the minister stressed.
She commended the GAF for supporting her ministry in the quest to make the country clean, saying “I must place on record that every time we have appealed humbly to the Defence Minister, he has shown readiness to assist my ministry.”
She highly commended ZGL for being very supportive to the ministry.
While praising the ministry and ZGL for the donation, the Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, said the gesture would contribute in terms of achieving the President’s vision of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa.
“We cannot agree with the President less at this era of Covid-19 pandemic…this presentation is timely and essential,” he said and gave an assurance that the vehicles would be used by the soldiers to monitor environmental sanitation programmes.
He expressed the hope that the existing collaboration between the two ministries – defence and sanitation and water resources – would grow as part of efforts to defeat the novel coronavirus in the country.
He recalled the sanitation and water resources donation of some 600 waste bins to his ministry, stating that “it, therefore, shows the commitment and seriousness she (Mrs. Dapaah) attaches to my ministry and that of hers.”
The Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Lieutenant General Obed B. Akwa, described the presentation as a “noble gesture”.
He said there was the need to deepen collaboration among state institutions in the country’s battle against Covid-19 and added that the presentation of the vehicles was timely, thereby applauding the gesture by the ministry and ZGL.
In attendance at the presentation was the Deputy Defence Minister, Major (rtd) Derrick Oduro, Service Commanders, Chief Directors of the MSWR, MoD, among others.