Local Govt Ministry presents 25 pickups to Greater Accra assemblies

Eleven Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies (MMAs) have received 25 double cabin 4X4 pickups from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development under a five-year Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) sanitation and water project.

The $150 million dollar project, which was launched in 2013, is intended to provide water and sanitation services to urban communities within the catchment area.

Funded by the World Bank Group and the Global Partnership for Output Based Aid (GPOBA), and implemented by the ministry, the project is also expected to address and improve the acute sanitation and water challenges confronting the over 250,000 urban communities, particularly the low income areas in the 11 municipalities of the GAMA.

Enforcement of bye-laws

Handing over the vehicles at a ceremony that also marked the relaunch of the GAMA project in Accra last Friday, the sector minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda, said the use of the vehicles formed part of a capacity- building effort to promote the work of the MMAs.

Specifically, he said, the objective was to strengthen the efforts of the environmental health units to carry out their monitoring and enforcement of sanitation bye-laws.

To ensure the success of the project, Alhaji Dauda said a number of public health engineers had also been posted to the MMAs.

The minister noted with concern that despite the progress made in other areas of national development such as the significant improvement in poverty reduction, improvements in education, water supply and health, very little had been made in ensuring environmental sanitation, adding, "this is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to go on."

Alhaji Dauda, therefore, urged the MMAs, particularly environmental health officers and public health engineers, to make good use of the vehicles.

"We do not want to hear of situations where the lack of vehicles is cited as a hindrance to improving environmental sanitation in your assemblies," he warned.

He also urged the metropolitan and municipal chief executives to ensure good maintenance to prolong the lifespan of the vehicles.

Project

Giving an overview of the project, its Co-ordinator, Mr George Asiedu, said its other objectives were to plan, improve and expand GAMA-wide environmental sanitation services.

That, he said, included the development of master plans for drainage, solid and liquid waste management and to finance critical elements to improve collection, treatment and disposal of waste water.

A representative of the World Bank, Mr Harold Esseku, urged the beneficiaries to utilise the vehicles for the success of the project.