Kumasi launches 'keep the city clean campaign'

A citywide clean up campaign dubbed “Keep the city clean” has been launched in Kumasi as part of measures to rid the metropolis of filth, improve and sustain environmental cleanliness.
The Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (ARCC) in collaboration with the Presidential Task Force on Waste Management and Sanitation and the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) launched the campaign in Kumasi on Wednesday.
According to the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Kofi Opoku-Manu, the campaign is a fulfillment of President J. E. A. Mills’ promise to take appropriate bold and sustained measures to help keep the country clean within the first 100 days in office.
Aside that, he also said the campaign was to help prepare Kumasi for the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, during which many tourists and visitors are expected in the city.
Maintaining clean environmental sanitation status in the Kumasi Metropolis has been a major challenge over the years with a number of factors militating against the efforts of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA).
Inadequate funds to sustain regular waste collection and street sweeping services, indiscriminate dumping of refuse into drains and open spaces, intense trading activities on the streets and pavements within the Central Business District (CBD), which result in the generation of large quantities of refuse creating persistent unsightly scenes and inadequate resources to support comprehensive sensitisation and education programmes are a few of the challenges.
In recent times the KMA has instituted a number of measures to combat the challenges significant among them is the City-Wide Solid Waste Collection Levy Scheme aimed at generating revenue from service beneficiaries to finance sustained service delivery.
To help foster what has already been done, the Ashanti Regional Minister said consultations have been held with various stakeholders including the 10 Members of Parliament in Kumasi to develop an action plan which is intended to achieve the desired clean city environment and the substance thereof for the year 2009 and beyond.
The Regional Minister said the main objectives of the “Keep the city clean” campaign would be on stopping littering and the indiscriminate dumping of refuse into drains and open spaces and ensure compliance with the Assembly’s Bye-laws on environmental sanitation.
He added that the campaign would also seek to enhance service delivery in solid waste collection by achieving 50percent cost recovery under the city-wide levy scheme by December 31, 2009.
He mentioned that a number of activities have been lined up to help achieve the set objectives which include installation of 100 public litter bins at the central business district, facilitation of the provision of public litter bins at all basic and second cycle institutions.
Others he said were the introduction of special sweeping on Sundays and other statutory holidays of selected areas particularly the CBD and scaling up of the “Pay as you dump” concept across the Kumasi metropolis.
Mr Opoku-Manu said 80 additional communal containers for placement at the communal dump sites to prevent dumping of refuse on the ground are to be procured in addition to quarterly massive clean up campaigns which would start from April 18, 2009 to coincide with the activities to mark the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Asantehene.
He mentioned that a 10-member Environmental Sanitation Task Force to ensure compliance with KMA Bye-laws has also been instituted and added that outstanding bills for solid waste collection, landfill operation and street sweeping are also to be paid.
“There is no doubt that maintaining a clean city is a shared responsibility. The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly should therefore not be left alone to shoulder this huge responsibility”, the Regional Minister said.
He therefore called on residents of Kumasi to play their role in helping to achieve the aim of keeping the city clean.
Dr Christiana Amoako Nuamah, Chairperson on the Presidential Task Force on Waste Management and Sanitation said her outfit has identified inadequate dumping sites, indiscriminate disposal of waste and problems with plastic waste as the major problems hampering sanitation in the country.
She said her outfit is to draw up short, medium and long term measures of handling the menace and that it would require joint collaboration from all stakeholders.
She said education on sanitation issues was paramount and that was exactly what was going to be initiated and that after a thorough education exercise the various assemblies would start enforcing bye-laws and would arrest any person who violates the law.
As a departure from previous clean up exercises which were launched at the offices of the KMA, this particular campaign was launched at the central business district (CBD).
Some residents who spoke to the Daily Graphic after the launch expressed the hope that this campaign would be different from the other ones by being sustained.