Frederick Faidoo
The Mayor of Sekondi-Takoradi, Frederick Faidoo, has made it clear that he cannot be blamed for the worsening sanitation situation in the metropolis.
It would be recalled that recently the Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Ahmed Ibrahim, expressed disappointment over the widespread filth that has engulfed parts of the metropolis.
He attributed the sanitation challenges largely to the ineffective management of the mayor and the assembly.
Mr. Ibrahim then issued a stern directive to the Mayor to tackle the poor sanitation situation in the Twin-City of Sekondi-Takoradi.
However, addressing a press conference in Sekondi, the mayor maintained that he alone cannot take responsibility for the area’s sanitation situation.
He attributed the sanitation challenges partly to the attitude of some residents in the metropolis.
“When you drive around town early in the morning, you will find sacks full of waste that have been put at some vantage points by some junkies.
“So we have formed a taskforce and its members will be placed at strategic positions to arrest persons caught leaving the sack with filth in any point of the central area in particular,” he stressed.
Mr. Faidoo indicated that members of the taskforce will be given part of the fine that will be imposed on offenders, to serve as a motivation to the taskforce.
He then encouraged residents to practice waste segregation whereby the waste could be separated in terms of plastics, papers and other waste, for easy evacuation by the assembly.
He noted that only about 10 per cent of the District Assembly Common Fund goes to the management of sanitation in the metropolis just like other districts.
“However, in our situation, we have an engineered land fill site that we are managing in addition to the collection of waste, and managing the landfill site is very expensive,” he added.
For his part, Edwin Bonsu, Head of Waste Management at the assembly, noted that a petition about the challenges the assembly is facing in its efforts to deal with sanitation issues has been sent to the Local Government Minister.
“So he is aware of the problems confronting the metropolis when it comes to the issue of tackling waste in the area,” he told journalists.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Sekondi