2020: Accra’s filth versus Africa’s cleanest city vision

“The commitment we are making and which I want you all to make with me is that by the time we end our four-year term, Accra is going to be the cleanest city in Africa,” the words of President Akufo-Addo during interactions with the people of James Town in 2017.

This was just one of the many times he had reiterated his commitment and resolve to make this vision possible.

In April 2019, just to be sure they had not deviated from this path, Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Dapaah was asked by journalists during a ‘Meet the Press’ series what progress government had made with this vision.

In response, she said:

“The President will go for two terms and at the end of that term, Accra would have been [the cleanest city] and we are on course. God is in control and the battle is still the Lords.”

October 2019 came and Ghanaians still wanted to have some updates; Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Mohammed Adjei Sowah this time stepped in and assured Ghanaians.

"So far we have made significant progress,” he said in a media interview on Citi FM.

It's 24 days into 2020 and the question of realization as far as the ‘Accra cleanest city by 2020’ vision is concerned is still in limbo.

There is still a lot of choked gutters, plastic waste, etc. in parts of the city.

A video posted on social media by a concerned citizen - Mutombo Da Poet - and sighted by www.ghanaweb.com shows a bed of plastic waste in an open gutter at the ring road central area. While it poses great danger especially if there is an outpour in the area, it also raises concerns about what government is doing to keep the city clean and indeed if their quest to make Accra a beacon of cleanliness will become a reality.

It will be recalled, however, that Serwaa Amihere, a broadcast journalist with GHOne TV, 8 days after the new year, took to social media to express her sentiments on the subject.

For her, the vision looks bleak considering the visible filth the country has been engulfed 11 months to end the President’s term in office.

"With exactly one year to go to the end of Prez Akufo-Addo’s term, it is fair to say that the promise to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa will remain a pipe dream on the evidence of what we have seen. We are nowhere near being the cleanest city in West Africa, let alone Africa”.

a bed of plastics on the ring road central. it’s amazing pic.twitter.com/LaH9ZOZ7qZ

— Mutombo [creator] (@MutomboDaPoet) January 24, 2020