Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources Cecilia Abena Dapaah has insisted Accra is clean following the pronouncements that the capital city is engulfed with filth.
She noted that occasionally, filth could be found where waste has been neglected and not collected but generally the capital is clean.
The Minister was responding to a question in Parliament about urgent steps the Ministry is taking to clear filth in Accra.
She indicated that as part of efforts to improve sanitation in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, new transfer stations have been earmarked under the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) and the Greater Accra Sustainable Sanitation and Livelihoods Improvement (GASSLIP) projects.
She explained that since waste comprises solid, liquid and medical waste, the Ministry has instituted appropriate programmes to deal with waste management in the capital.
Mrs Dapaah disclosed that as part of the programme, community-based solid waste collection in low-income communities within the Odaw basin would be provided and condominal sewer networks extended to connect 1,000 households.
About 5,000 household toilets, she said, would be constructed to benefit 40,000 people and stressed that 30 skip containers and 24 mini waste collection vehicles would also be provided.
Mrs. Dapaah gave assurance that the Ministry will continuously collaborate with the assemblies and environmental service providers to improve and maintain good sanitary conditions in the greater Accra metro area.
“The daily management of waste is a key function of the assemblies and this is executed in conjunction with environmental service providers through their respective contract agreements,” she stated.
A total of 27,000 household toilets, she said, have so far been constructed in various parts of Greater Accra including Mamprobi, Kpone, Weija, Abokobito among many others to benefit 300,000 people living in low-income communities within the last three years as a result of challenges with open defecation in the Metropolis.
Mrs Dapaah described a viral video of a huge mass of plastic floating in the storm drain at asylum down following a short downpour last week as fake.
According to her, the video was debatable because plastic does not ‘flow’ and to watch such video only indicates it was faked.
“I sent my people after I watched the video and the Minister of Works and Housing sent his people but there was nothing like that,” she stated.
The Minister, however, noted that managing plastic waste is not under the ambit of the Sanitation Ministry but rather the responsibility of the Ministry of Science and Environment.
She averred that though the capital is generally clean, more could be done to make it better but stressed it would involve the participation of the entire citizenry.
