Some of the convicts with personnel from KMA
The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has stepped up its sanitation enforcement campaign, leading to the conviction of 10 offenders by the Prempeh Assembly Hall Courts for violating the Assembly’s environmental sanitation bye-laws.
The convictions form part of the Assembly’s renewed efforts to restore cleanliness and ensure strict compliance with sanitation regulations across the Kumasi Metropolis.
The offenders appeared before Prempeh Assembly Hall Courts 1 and 2, presided over by His Worship Kwaku Ansah Akrofi and Her Worship Deborah Gyaawa Donkoh, who imposed various fines on the convicts.
Six of the offenders were each fined 100 penalty units, while two others were fined 140 penalty units each. Another offender was fined 80 penalty units for breaching the Assembly’s sanitation regulations.
The offences included keeping insanitary premises, allowing weeds to overgrow, storing abandoned items in unauthorised places, burning refuse within residential compounds, keeping an unvaccinated dog, discharging wastewater into public drains, and failing to maintain hygienic washroom facilities.
As part of the ongoing exercise, the Assembly’s sanitation task force also carried out an enforcement operation at Boakye Dankwah, popularly known as Dichemso, where several suspected sanitation offenders were arrested.
Although some residents complied with the directives of the task force, others claimed they were unaware of the sanitation bye-laws or had not received information on the Assembly’s public education campaign. Some residents reportedly locked themselves indoors in an attempt to evade arrest.
The KMA, however, stressed that ignorance of the law is no excuse and urged residents to take responsibility for keeping their surroundings clean.
The Assembly also appealed to households, businesses and property owners to support the Clean Kumasi Campaign by properly disposing of waste and complying with the Assembly’s sanitation bye-laws to improve public health and maintain a cleaner environment across the metropolis.
FROM David Afum, Kumasi