AMA to enforce ban on sachet water if...

Accra, July 5, GNA - The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) said on Thursday that it would go ahead and ban the use of sachet and polythene bags, if manufacturers of such products refused to immediately negotiate with the AMA on ways to manage the waste.

"Manufacturers of (sachet water and polythene bags) are hereby reminded for the last time either to revert to the use of bio-degradable materials or come out with concrete proposals as to how to deal with the menace of plastic waste," Mr. Stanley Adjiri Blankson, Chief Executive of the AMA, said in Accra on Thursday.

Briefing the press on current development in the city, he said: "The producers of such unacceptable material should therefore note that if AMA strikes, there shall be no U-turn because we are statutorily mandated to care for the lives of the five million residents in the Metropolis."

According to Mr. Adjiri Blankson, the AMA was finding it difficult to trace most sachet water producers because it realized that the contact addresses embossed on most sachets were fake.

He said the AMA was now working to trace all such illegal manufacturers and then invite them to find out whether they could provide funds to the AMA to recycle the waste or go ahead with the ban. On physical planning in the Metropolis, the AMA Chief Executive said it would embark on another decongestion exercise named "Operation Nimrod" to remove all unauthorized structures placed on water-ways, drains and pavements, in order to end flooding in the city. "The Assembly is recruiting 150 building inspectors to enforce building regulations and control the haphazard springing up of un-permitted building structures," he added.

Mr Adjiri Blankson said the Assembly carried out a property revaluation exercise to generate more revenue to meet development needs of the people. He said the AMA would from next month work to retrieve all debts from defaulters who had failed to pay their property rates.

On sanitation, he noted that despite commendations made by dignitaries who attended the just-ended African Union Summit on the city's cleanliness, the AMA would continue to work hard and sensitise the general public on attitudinal change for environmental cleanliness. He stated that attitudinal change was crucial to maintain a healthy environment because the AMA spent about 2.5 billion cedis (GH cedi 250,000,000) on each clean-up exercise.

The Chief Executive said AMA would not tolerate any recalcitrant attitude of traders who continued to hawk along major streets and pavements and advised the public to desist from buying from those traders.

He said the AMA intended to embark on another exercise, which would this time prosecute even those who buy from recalcitrant traders and the traders themselves.

Mr Adjiri Blankson said the public must not think that the Assembly's directive for embossment on taxi cabs and the wearing of uniforms by taxi drivers had fizzled out, since AMA only delayed the arrest of defaulters upon request by the Ghana Transport Coordinating Council for an extension of the deadline.