Landlords and occupants of residential and office facilities who fail to clean their frontage will be prosecuted in accordance with the newly passed sanitation bye-laws, Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, has cautioned.
According to him, the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) would not shield any individual or group that do not comply strictly with the Operation Clean Your Frontage bye-laws aimed at improving sanitation in the region.
He said the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the region have been empowered by the passing of the bye-laws, and expressed confidence that enforcement would be intensified in the various areas.
Mr Quartey was speaking in Accra yesterday during the inauguration of the ‘Operation Clean Your Frontage’ at the Secretariat.
He explained that the secretariat was necessary to promote effective monitoring of activities under the Operation Clean Your Frontage campaign.
“The Secretariat would be a one-stop shop for all activities under the campaign and would include a Regional Call Centre as well as the Regional Office of the City Response Team,” he stated.
The Regional Call Centre, the Regional Minister said, was a centralised office that would receive sanitation-related complaints and reports, and relay same to all 29 MMDA call centres for redress.
He said the RCC in collaboration with the National Service Scheme (NSS) had developed application software which would enable designated officers at various levels of operations to receive complaints and dispatch same to relevant officers for immediate action.
Mr Quartey said 1,000 members of the city response taskforce who had undergone one-month training would pass out on April 26 this year.
He indicated that the personnel would be deployed to the various MMDAs to support traffic management, education on good waste management and sanitation practices and the enforcement of the bye-laws.
“We are moving into a full implementation of the bye-laws immediately after the passing-out. I entreat all residents of the region to cooperate by giving maximum support to the taskforce,” he added.
The Minister further reiterated calls on traders operating at unauthorised places to move to designated areas or be prosecuted.
Mr Osei Assibey Antwi, Executive Director of NSS, noted of his outfit’s readiness to offer support to the Regional Coordinating Council in realising the objectives and plans of the RCC.
The scheme, he said, was training service personnel who would be posted to the secretariat to run the call centres to make them effective.
Chief Executive of Ablekuma West Municipal Assembly, George Cyril Blay, stated that the Secretariat was critical to achieving the objectives of the campaign and pledged the support of the Assemblies in the region to enhance sanitation
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS