Sanitation Police to be introduced

Zoom Alliance, a subsidiary of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, is to introduce a Community Sanitation Police and Monitoring Taskforce to deal with the poor sanitation in the country.

The company is, therefore, collaborating with the Ministry for Local Government and Rural Development (MLRD) and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to operationalise the deal.

Mr Kenneth Asare, Senior Operations and Technical Manager at Zoom Alliance, disclosed this to newsmen at a drainage desilting and clean up exercise at Achimota-Kopervie in Accra.

“We are introducing monitors and police so that after we have cleaned and left, the area will be monitored and policed so that people do not dump indiscriminately,” said Mr Asare.

A national programme, aimed at desilting drains to deal with flooding and outbreaks of malaria and cholera during rainy seasons, has been launched to herald the exercise.

Mr Asare said since the rainy season would soon begin it was imperative that actions were taken to desilt drains to get rid of filth.

He added that in order to sustain the exercise, a permanent taskforce was necessary to ensure people disciplined themselves in term of keeping their environment clean.

Mr Asare said with the institution of the taskforce, anyone who flouted the AMA bye-laws on sanitation would be prosecuted at the sanitation court.

The issue of sanitation and environmental cleanliness is a shared responsibility and requires the support of government and the public.

The Community Sanitation Police and Monitoring Taskforce formed the second phase of the National Sanitation Taskforce launched in December 2012, and would be spearheaded by Zoom Alliance with support from Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

The Zoom Group has pledged its commitment to support the project whose taskforce will have an implementation committee with representation from all security agencies including the National Disaster Management Organization, the environmental health officers and the regional coordinating councils.

Mr Johannes Obeng Danso, Operations Manager at Zoom Alliance, said communal containers would be placed at vantage points for residents in homes with poor access routes to facilitate dumping at a fee to guarantee sustainability.

Mr Danso said the ‘polluter pays’ principle where each house paid for every tonne of refuse it generated would be effectively implemented with the help of city authorities.

“We are embarking on a series of intensive public education for people to understand the need to keep our environments clean,” he said.

Mr Robert Coleman, Acting Communications Manager of Zoomlion, asked people to change their attitudes towards sanitation and support the company to make a  significant progress.

He urged the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to enforce their bye-laws by taking steps to prosecute sanitation offenders to serve as a deterrent to others.

Source: GNA