Akufo-Addo renews sanitation promise

In 2017, President Akufo-Addo made the promise to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa at the end of his first term.

To achieve this promise and show his dedication to realizing this dream, the president for the first time set up a Sanitation Ministry.

The ministry was to oversee the sanitation issues in the country.

This was done while other sanitation initiatives were taken during the president’s first term to achieve the agenda.

Some of the other initiatives included the launch of the national sanitation campaign, the distribution of litter bins to reduce the amount of waste on the street, and the engagement of sanitation guards to enforce by-laws in MMDAs.

Despite these moves to make Accra the cleanest city, the government was unable to achieve its agenda of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

Several CSOs in Sanitation cast doubt on the President’s promise. Many thought Ghana’s sanitation problems which are decades old could not have been resolved in just a four-year term in office.

But in a renewed commitment to fulfilling this promise, President Akufo-Addo is back with more initiatives.

This time in the 2021 budget statement read by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Majority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu.

Measures

While touting the government’s sanitation achievement, Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu said an additional 3,000 litter bins will be distributed to augment efforts in the fight against littering in the streets.

“In 2021, Government will distribute 3,000 litter bins to further advance the Street Litter Bin campaign throughout the country.

“Mr. Speaker, Government will continue to undertake the re-engineering of the landfill sites at Kpone and Oti and also initiate the construction of a transfer station and additional landfill cells to improve solid waste collection and disposal under GASSLIP.

Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu revealed that in 2021, two transfer landfill sites will be engineered in the Ga Wwest Municipality in the Greater Accra Region.

“Mr. Speaker, Government under the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) Project will construct an engineered sanitary landfill and a materials recovery facility in the Ga West Municipality. In addition, two transfer stations are being constructed at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission and the Adentan Municipality. Also, two major dumpsites at Abokobi and Agbogbloshie (Old Fadama) will be capped.”