The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), in collaboration with the Ayawaso West Wagon Municipal Assembly, has embarked on an evacuation of three dumping sites in the municipality to improve sanitation-related issues.
The nationwide evacuation exercise on dumping sites is in line with the ongoing government agenda of ‘Operation Clean Your Frontage Campaign, aimed at resolving sanitation challenges across the board.
The three areas are La Bawaleshie near the Bawaleshie School, Okponglo and Mepeasem dumping sites.
The implanting partners of the project, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, one of the leading waste management giants in the country, expressed their preparedness and readiness towards the exercise by deploying trucks to convey the rubbish to its final dumping site at Nsawam.
Speaking during the exercise on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, the Municipal Environmental Health Officer (MEHO), Mr. Sani Mutala, thanked the ministry for embarking on the exercise, adding that the evacuation will ensure that rubbish will not serve as a hindrance to causing floods in the area.
Mr. Sani said these dumping sites are over 10 years old adding that their evacuation is going to serve as a relief for students and residents living in these areas.
He pleaded with Zoomlion to increase the number of dust bin containers in each site to three to ensure that at all times, there is a container for people to dump their waste and to discourage residents from littering the bare floor.
The MEHO said immediately after evacuation, “We will deploy the environmental health officers to the community to educate them on the consequences and the need to stop dumping rubbish on the floor.”
“We are looking at ways to fence the whole area and provide one entrance where security would be stationed to man the place and also mount signage warning people from littering the environment.”
Mr. Sani challenged Ghanaians to change their attitude towards the environment because, mostly, either “we are ignorant about our actions or we deliberately do so. Assuming it’s raining, and you deliberately dump trash in the rain, where do you expect it to go? Now it will go and block somewhere and cause flooding, and the same people will turn and blame the government of the day.”
“We cannot blame the government when we ourselves are not responsible to the environment. Go to people’s houses, the water that they bathe cannot flow through, it becomes stagnant and breed mosquitos,” he stated.
Mr. Sani said the immediate environment shows how healthy you are, and a nation cannot develop when people are sick, so together, if “we are able to do things right, we will increase productivity and maximize growth.”
“I encourage each and everyone to clean the immediate environment and homes to at least the middle of the road to complement the ongoing campaign. How can you put rubbish in your car…, you have money to buy a car but don’t have money to pay for ‘borla’ so you drop it on the roadside. This is total madness,” he added.
On his part, the Assemblyman for the Okponglo Electoral Area, Ishmael A. Djani, was excited about the Assembly’s decision to evacuate the waste in the area, which he said has led to an outbreak of malaria and other diseases in the area.
“Finally, our cry has been heard by the authorities, we are grateful to the ministry, the Assembly and Zoomlion for their timely support to clear all the waste from our society,” he revealed.
Officials in Zoomlion say the exercise in the municipality will last for eight days.
