In its desire to become the cleanest city in the Western Region and probably the nation at large, the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly through an EU funded Twin Cities in Sustainable Partnership (TCSPP), has launched a sanitation campaign dubbed: “Operation Clean Your Surroundings”.
Given the rate at which filth has engulfed the city, the campaign is to ensure that every community takes the bull by the horn in the fight against waste, which could not have come at a better time than this.
For instance, the Business District, The Chronicle can report, is engulfed with filth and sometimes it takes days before it is eventually cleared.
Presenting the current sanitation situation to the media, Mr Aziz Mahmoud, head of waste management at the assembly,indicated that the Metropolis is hit with the unpleasant situation of open defecation, which adversely affects its ranking on the District League Table.
According to him, the number of people who access public toilets were overwhelming, whilst others also resort to defecating openly, as per the records by the Environmental Health Department of the Assembly.
He added that the pleas to officers of the Environmental Department when arrests are made, goes a long way to defeat the purpose of discouraging unacceptable sanitation lifestyles and promoting healthy sanitary communities.
He hinted that the project has identified environmental stewards such as the chiefs and queen mothers, assembly members, the clergy and civil society organisations among other groups, to support the campaign to champion behavioral change. He was optimistic that they would help to realise the vision of the campaign.
The Communications and Visibility Officer of TCSPP, Mr. John Laste, who gave an insight into the campaign, mentioned that it seeks to raise awareness and to cause change, as well encourage citizens to take responsibility of their actions.
He indicated that a taskforce whose duty would be to educate, arrest, prosecute and name and shame sanitation related offenders, would undertake unannounced visits.
He revealed that the move was to learn from the collaboration between Joy News and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to ensure that a cleaner city is achieved.
The Metropolitan Chief Executive, Abdul-Mumin Issah, expressed worry over the filth that has engulfed the metropolis in almost all the areas.
He said the Assembly spends huge sums of money in waste management, adding that it is for this reason that it enhanced the byelaws on sanitation.
He hinted that arrests were made when the Assembly declared war on areas zoned to be open defecation prone, adding that it contributed immensely to the improvement of sanitation in the areas.
He indicated that the household toilet campaign by the Assembly, which has received support from the European Union, would go a long way to promote sanitation in the Metropolis and, therefore, appealed for behavioural change to ensure that the cleanest city is achieved by STMA.
