Lack of political will undermines Assembly's efforts

Accra, June 1, GNA - The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) said on Wednesday that lack of political will on the part of leaders was one of the biggest hindrances to its efforts to enforce bye-laws and regulations.

Mr. Nii Teiko Tagoe, Head of Planning of the AMA, said the situation where sector Ministries, government departments and agencies continued to meddle in the affairs of the Assembly undermine its authority and create the erroneous impression that the AMA was not able to execute its task of getting work in the city.

He said although the trend of interference had drastically reduced, it still represented the greatest affront to the ability of the AMA to control affairs in the city.

"When people can always get to political godfathers to intercede for them, even when they are in breach of regulations undermine the ability of the assembly to enforce the laws," he said.

Mr Tagoe was speaking at a forum on environmental and consumer protection in Ghana, organized by the Ghanaian-German Economic Association in Accra.

He said Ghanaians needed to realize that the only way to sustainable development was for them to abide by the rules and regulations. "Unless we agree to go by the rules, we must well forget about our targets for development," he said.

Mr. Tagoe was not happy about the sheer indiscipline and apathy by the people towards the environment, saying that everyone has the responsibility to ensure that the environment was freed of waste. Speaking on the topic: "The environmental responsibility of the Plastic Industry in Ghana," Mr Ebo Botwe, President of the Ghana Plastic Manufacturers Association said the solution to the plastic menace depended, to a large extent on a consistent education on proper disposal, awareness creation and recycling.

He suggested the introduction of a sanitation levy on all plastic related imports to be pooled into a fund for the control of the waste. Mr. Botwe said, although most of the members of the association were willing to get into recycling the high electricity tariffs were working against the venture.

Mr Juergen Meniel, Technical Director, City Waste Management Company Limited said less that five per cent of solid waste generated in the country is recycled or reused.

He said investments in the waste industry should be made attractive for investors to build and operate large-scale recycling and incineration plants by providing subsidies through levies on waste producing industries. June 1 05