Wa Assembly commissions new waste containers and sanitation workers

The Wa Municipal Assembly has commissioned newly fabricated communal waste containers and City Cleaners, City Guards, Airport Corner Boys, Sanitation Surveillance Volunteers, and the Sanitation Taskforce

The ceremony, held at the Wa Metropolitan Assembly's new auditorium, was presided over by the Metropolitan Chief Executive, Hon Alhaji Nurah Issah Danwanaa, and attended by the Regional Minister, Charles Lwanga Puozuing Esq., Member of Parliament for Wa Central and Minister of State for Special Initiatives, Dr Rashid Pelpuo, Tendamba, the Overlord of the Waala Traditional Council, assembly members, heads of departments, development partners, and sanitation service providers.

The Mayor said the lack of adequate communal containers has led to indiscriminate dumping and poor environmental conditions. To address it, the Assembly facilitated the fabrication of new containers.

He thanked the Gateway Foundation for supporting the fabrication of four containers, three of which are ready, and commended assembly members who rehabilitated two existing containers.

He also disclosed that the Assembly procured two tricycles to support refuse collection in hard-to-reach areas, and thanked Alhaji Muskila of Muskilla Motors for donating an additional tricycle.

New initiatives launched include the City Guards Sanitation Watch, City Cleaners Daily Routine Programme, Environmental Officers Zonal Oversight Programme, Sanitation Surveillance Volunteers, Tricycle Sari Lori (Bola Taxi) Initiative, motorbikes for Environmental Officers and wheelbarrows for Airport Corner youth.

The Mayor announced collaboration with Sustainable Cities to strengthen waste collection, transportation, recycling and disposal, expected to deliver a skip truck and pickup vehicle, and support plans for faecal sludge management at Kperisi. He also acknowledged private sanitation entrepreneurs investing in the sector.

To strengthen supervision, he said 17 Environmental Health Officers have been deployed to all electoral areas, alongside city cleaners.

He said the Assembly has collaborated with the Regional Coordinating Council and SEND-GH in gazetting its sanitation bye-laws to strengthen enforcement, stressing that the objective is compliance, not punishment.

The Mayor said the monthly exercise, dubbed “Operation Clean Your Frontage” and earlier as one “Mayor’s Major Clean-Up Exercise,” will be sustained with participation of assembly members, traditional authorities, youth groups, traders and institutions. It will involve sweeping, weeding, desilting drains and refuse collection, but he stressed sanitation must be a daily responsibility.

In his address, the MP for Wa Central, Hon Dr Rashid Hassan Pelpuo, said two principles must guide waste management: enforcement of sanitation laws and the polluter-pays principle.

He lamented indiscriminate dumping, saying keeping the environment clean is a shared responsibility, not the government’s alone.

The Regional Minister also praised the Mayor for the initiative and urged residents to support a clean Upper West Region.

With these remarks, the WA central member of parliament, Regional Minister, and WA Mayor officially commissioned the containers, acknowledged the tricycles, and launched the monthly clean-up exercise.