Clean-up exercise to herald Homowo: Ga Traditional Council removes 340 tonnes waste at James Town

About 340 tonnes of waste was collected at James Town in Accra yesterday as the Ga Traditional Council inspired a clean-up exercise ahead of the Homowo Festival.

Dubbed the Homowo Clean-up Campaign, the exercise aims to enhance environmental cleanliness within the area as part of activities to mark this year’s Homowo Festival of the chiefs and people of the Ga Traditional Area.

Between 6 a.m. and 12 noon when the exercise lasted, participants cleared drains and gutters, swept the shoulders of the streets, gathered and disposed of refuse at Sempe, Gbese, Abola, Asere, and the Dogo Beach, all in the Ga Mashie enclave.

Structures that were deemed obstructive to the free flow of water were also demolished to address conditions favourable to flooding in the area.

The exercise, which will end on August 20 this year, is a collaborative effort by the Ga Traditional Council, the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

Zoomlion is providing technical support by making available trucks to collect and dispose of the waste and the working tools required for the exercise.

The exercise, which will take place in all the 25 local government authorities within the Greater Accra Region, aims to enhance the cleanliness and the beautification of the environment while fostering unity and responsibility among residents and the communities.

Satisfaction

The Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, commended the AMA, the RCC and Zoomlion for facilitating the clean-up exercise as he passed through the areas of the exercise. 
He also thanked the residents in the area for their active participation in the exercise.

 King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II (left), Ga Mantse, leading the Ga Homowo clean-up exercise. With him are Nii Ahele Nunoo III (2nd from left), Abola Mantse, and Nii Kwartei Titus Glover (2nd from right), Greater Accra Regional Minister. 
Pictures: ELVIS NII NOI DOWUONA

King Teiko Tsuru further urged them to desist from politicising sanitation and other related issues to scale up development in the traditional area. “I also urge you all to remain united and ensure the growth and development of this community,” the Ga Mantse said.

Sanitation challenges

The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover, admitted that sanitation was a huge challenge in Accra and a major cause of many illnesses in the region.

He said it was about time the challenge was addressed to ensure that the vision of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa was realised.

“It's a matter of outreach and a matter of education to ensure attitudinal change among our people. I am appealing to everyone to come on board so that we deal with this issue once and for all,” Mr Titus-Glover said.

He urged the media to amplify the essence of the clean-up exercise while also urging the assembly to periodically embark on such an exercise to enhance cleanliness in the areas.

Enforcement

The Chief Executive of AMA, Elizabeth Naa Kwatsoe Tawiah Sackey, said the next phase of the exercise would be an enforcement of the AMA bye-laws to ensure that persons who dumped refuse indiscriminately were prosecuted.

Some members of Ga Mashie partaking in the exercise 

“We’ve been doing this exercise each year, and it’s about time we started enforcing the laws because we cannot continue cleaning people’s dirt each year. We’ve seen that cleaning the environment is ineffective, so the law must work,” she said.

Ms Sackey said an enforcement team would soon be stationed in the area to ensure that whoever failed to comply with the sanitation bye-laws was dragged to the Sanitation Court.