Akufo-Addo To Ghanaians: ‘Change Your Attitude!’

President Akufo-Addo thinks the implementation of by-laws and logistics alone cannot solve the insanitary conditions in the country.

 

Rather he believes attitudinal change will help rewrite the narrative to a large extent.

He has therefore called on his fellow countrymen to change their attitude to rid the country of filth.

This was when he launched the Operation ‘Clean Your Frontage’ in Accra on Friday.

 

 

 

Operation ‘Clean Your Frontage’  is part of the “Let’s Make Greater Accra Work” transformational agenda that seeks to mobilise and empower all urban actors to practically and sustainably respond to the region’s waste management and sanitation challenges.

It is also intended to create opportunities for sustainable urban and economic growth in the context of enhanced security, clean and green environment, public private partnerships and good urban governance.

The Agenda was formulated by the Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinating Council under the leadership of Henry Quartey,
the Regional Minister in response to President Akufo-Addo’s vision of making Accra the cleanest city in West Africa.

 

 

 

The “Operation Clean Your Frontage” campaign would make it mandatory for property owners of residential, private and public institutions and the citizenry to clean and green their frontage and all open spaces around their property.

President Akufo-Addo believes “the aesthetic appearance of our communities, especially the urbanized communities is critical to among other things attract tourist, investors and promote the wellbeing of the citizenry.”

This implies that, cleaning and greening would be a daily practice in the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Greater Accra Region.

 

 

 

Some of the strategic interventions under the “Operation Clean your Frontage” campaign includes by-laws on cleaning of the frontage of premises formulated and gazetted, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAS) deployment of systematic approach to sensitize residents, corporate organizations and community members on their roles and responsibilities in waste management.

Under the initiative, Assemblies are expected to create extensive awareness on sanitation and cleaning by-laws and commit to enforcing the by-laws, deployment of a new City Response Team, evacuation of accumulated refuse at sanitary sites and other locations.

It will also involve transfer stations in MMDAs, daily sweeping of streets, curbs, walkways, and open spaces, picking of litter from walkways, road medians and open spaces, daily collection of refuse from streets, road medians, and public
open spaces, daily emptying of street litter bins, provision of concrete bins by the major highways, desilting of public drains, regular weeding of road medians, greening of public open spaces road medians and road shoulders and periodic curbs painting on ceremonial streets.

 

Looking at the enormity of the project, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of the JOSPONG Group is releasing logistics and equipment to support the Accra Must Work Campaign to achieve maximum impact aside the already deployed logistics for its regular operations.

 

Chairman of the JOSPONG, Joseph Siaw Agyepong who announced this in addition to providing its personnel, the company is providing about 85 compactors and 1,000 Tricycles to support this campaign.

 

 

He revealed that “the company has come out with the new tricycle model and system of operation that will unionize and assist the informal waste collection sector to contribute to the waste management processes in a more formal and organized manner to improve waste collection in slums and poorly planned areas.”

He has therefore encouraged all Ghanaians to as it were “take advantage of this laudable initiative to clean their frontage to ensure that we, in our own small ways, also play our parts in making Ghana a clean and health country.”