The Metropolitan Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah, has said that he wants Abossey Okai to become a model business enclave in sanitation issues within the Accra Metropolis.
He said that focus on Abossey Okai and its environs should not only be centred on business purposes but also to be the first spare parts dealers with good sanitary conditions within the Accra Metropolis.
He made this known at the launch of the ‘Think Clean Project’, organized by the AMA and the Metropolitan Waste and Allied services (MWAS), together with the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Asociation, to make Abossey Okai free from filth and an example to the other commercial business centres.
The project will demand that all shop owners in Abossey Okai would be registered and pay 10 cedis each, while those who sell on table tops pay 5 cedis each at the end of every month to ensure the smooth running of the project. Households and financial institutions in the area will also pay but on a daily basis.
As part of the launch, the Metropolitan Waste and Allied Services presented over 200 waste bins to be placed at vantage points in the area. According to Mr. Gershon Sogbey, the company will in addition, deploy 3 compaction trucks, ten 3 leg tricycles, wheelbarrows, brooms, gloves and 90 personnel to ensure the success of the program. And as part of their corporate social responsibility to the community, they are going to provide street lights in the area since their operations will normally be carried out at night.
The MCE of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly congratulated the Spare Parts Dealers Association for their immense collaboration during the National Sanitation Day exercise and urged them to continue to collaborate and be part of the project, adding that MWAS is the waste service provider responsible for the Abossey Okai spare parts enclave.
Mr Adjei Sowah stressed that if they flout the sanitation bye laws, they would be prosecuted so they must be responsible for the filth they generate, its storage and its disposal, adding that if they are not able to control their market development, they will lose their customers.
A board member of MWAS, Madam Florence Larbi, expressed the company’s excitement towards this project and urged everyone to be part of the project to ensure a clean Abossey Okai.
The Member of Parliament for the Ablekuma Central Constituency, Hon Ebenezer Nii Narh Nartey, admonished both the service providers and their staff on one hand and the spare parts dealers on the other hand. He urged the spare parts dealers to pay what they have agreed on to enable the service providers offset their operational cost. While calling on management of the company to pay the cleaners on time to motivate them to give off their best, he as well advised the cleaners not to take their employment for granted because, “none should think that it is their party which is in power so they will work as they like because when they do not perform and they are sacked, no one will mediate for them, in fact he will not be party in begging for them”.
The MP also disclosed that the drainage system in parts where there are none would be constructed and about 200 street lights will be fixed in Abossey Okai so that thieves will stop breaking into their shops at night. He continued that, surfacing of some roads and the paving of others due to constant oil spillage on them are being considered.
The Public Relations Officer of the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association, Mr Clement Boateng, on behalf of the Association, showed their gratitude towards the project, disclosing that before initiating the project, MWAS, together with AMA, had a series of meetings with the Association to find ways of ensuring a proper sanitation conditions for Abossey Okai. He said a taskforce had been formed to ensure compliance by all stakeholders.
Source:Ghana/AccraFM.com
