Residents within the Ayawaso Central Municipality have been advised to take sanitation around their homes, offices, and shops as their responsibility even as the Assembly prepares to implement its sanitation by-laws from February this year.
Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) Alhaji Mohammed Quaye, advised a sensitization campaign at various locations under his jurisdiction ahead of the launch of the “Operation Clean Your Frontage” initiative on 1st February 2022.
The MCE engaged residents within the Kwame Nkrumah circle, Kokomlemle, Alajo and Kotobabi on the need to maintain a clean and healthy environment without being forced to do so.
“Keeping your surroundings clean must come to you naturally, it shouldn’t be a matter of compulsion. However, it has become necessary to apply the law since we as a people have failed to do this on our own.”
The “Operation Clean Your Frontage” initiative aims to enforce sanitation regulation within the Greater Accra region as part of the “Make Greater Accra Work” programme being championed by the Regional Coordinating Council.
Alhaji Quaye explained that residents who have their shops close to drains owe it a responsibility to clean the gutters regularly same way they sweep their shops and rooms on daily basis.
He warned residents with properties situated less than four feet from the gutter to shift backwards to allow for the mandatory pedestrian walkway as prescribed by the Municipal by-law. In the same vein, persons close to the banks of the Odaw river are also being cautioned to move away.
Some residents expressed concern about the high volume of solid waste, particularly, plastic waste which does not originate from them but are disposed into drains only to accumulate in front of their shops.
This, they stated, only puts a cost burden on them because they pay for its collection, and called on the Assembly to severely punish persons who indulge in such insanitary behaviour.
The MCE assured them of the Assembly’s commitment in bringing to book all who fall foul of the by-laws on sanitation adding that, “you don’t need to wait for the official launch to observe good sanitation practices. The way you bathe your body every day, is the same way you must keep your surroundings clean”.