Educate people on sanitation – Former Mayor

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), the body tasked with the responsibility of ridding the capital city of filth, has come under heavy criticism for failing to implement by-laws on sanitation. But according to former mayor Nat Nunoo Amarteifio, the assembly is handicapped when it comes to executing policies that will make the city clean.

Speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class 91.3FM on Wednesday June 8, Mr Amarteifio said lack of education on sanitation is the reason the capital is filthy.

“The city isn’t well provisioned; we don’t have enough law courts. The best way to enforce laws is not to have to enforce them at all. If you are educating people that it is wrong to throw paper onto the street, then you don’t have to enforce that law. But we don’t educate people; we simply go along with it. … We reach out for the big trucks, we reach out for the infrastructure, and we neglect the human education,” he stated.

Director of Waste Management at the AMA, Mr Tony Mensah, speaking on the show, said: “Attitudinal issue is a major component of the challenges that we do have and, as of now, we are in the process of reviewing the by-laws of the assembly to make sure all the necessary aspects across the waste management value chain [are] catered for. But even before we get to the end of the review process, the public health department of the assembly has also stepped up its operations to make sure people who flout the by-laws regarding environmental sanitation are dealt with.”

One of the solutions that experts have advanced to deal with the sanitation situation in the country is effective waste management. But according to an environmental health specialist, Dr Dzidzor Yirenya Tawiah, authorities are failing to recognise the importance of managing waste.

She told host Prince Minkah: “We hear every day all over the world how people are managing waste…and the global strategy now for waste management is geared towards recycling and…there is a lot of waste being turned for useful purposes and they are making money out of it. We, for instance, hear that Britain, for instance, is exporting waste to Sweden; it means that there must be some business opportunities in there if they are to be exporting their waste all the way to Sweden. I think if we begin to look at the business opportunities that we have with waste management, it will help manage our own situation in the sense that the problem we have now is the way we mix all our waste up and, therefore, we can do nothing about our waste. We cannot use it the way it is, but then it will be good to promote waste segregation and waste reuse.”