As part of the Operation Clean Your Frontage campaign, the Greater Accra Regional Ministry, in collaboration with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and Zoomlion Ghana Limited, has begun a three-month clean-up operation to sanitise and keep the streets of the Accra metropolis tidy.
The exercise, which kick-starts Tuesday, October 4, 2022, and commences from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, will be done on daily basis for three months till the end of the year.
It would be targeted at desilting choked drains to allow the free flow of water, particularly during this period of perennial rainfall.
The day one exercise which is expected to end at Avenor, Circle would ensure that the surroundings along the road in the area are kept clean.
Additionally, the operation’s task force comprising of personnel from the security services including the Ghana Arm Forces and the police is to insist the streets of Accra are rid of all obstructions for space for the task force to go about their work.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the operation, an Environmental Analyst with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Joseph A. Asitanga, expressed his excitement at the exercise and was upbeat that it will yield the intended purposes.
He, however, added that efforts must be made to ensure that the debris gathered along the gutters do not find their way back into the drains and gutters.
“We are going to ensure that every obstruction in and around driveways, walkways, unauthorised public spaces, buffer zones and all government lands within the Greater Accra Region are cleared,” he stated.
He went on to reveal that most of the illegal dwellers who were terrorising innocent people along the streets were squatters.
To ensure compliance with the order, Mr Asitanga gave a firm assurance that the AMA will man every spot that its task force will sanitise.
“Wherever the team gets to and identifies a nuisance, the residents or workers are detailed to clean and desilt the gutters and drains,” he noted.
According to him, the exercise had no exceptions to business structures that had been erected illegally at unauthorised points and added that whether or not a nuisance identified at a location is created by the one spotted, the team will impress upon the one to abate the same.
“In fact, the operation is simply absolute no abstractions on the walkways, no
refuse in drains and gutters,” Mr Asitanga said.
An Environmental Health Officer, of the AMA, Ishmael Togoe, issued summons to persons who were causing nuisance at unauthorised locations, as well as failed to comply with the AMA’s directives to appear before the Motor and Traffic Magistrate Court.
Earlier, while addressing the parade of the task force, the Project Coordinator of Operation Clean Your Frontage, Colonel Kofi Amissah-Mensah (Rtd), expressed satisfaction at the swift response of the team to the exercise.
Though the exercise kick-started late, he attributed it to a decision by the authorities to allow owners of shops to clean their frontages.
Mr Togoe said a special sticker will be printed to tag various houses that will default.
Some responsible citizens expressed utmost satisfaction about the exercise and called for a continuation of similar exercises to remove, especially squatters from authorised areas.
