The central government’s agenda to ensure that the national capital, Accra, becomes the cleanest city in the whole of Africa has been given a major boost.
This follows the handing over of 500 state-of the-art new skip trucks by waste management giant, Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL), a subsidiary of Jospong Group of Companies, to various metropolitan, municipal district assemblies (MMDAs) within the Greater Accra Region.
Making the presentation at a colourful ceremony at the Black Star Square in Accra on Friday, August 31, 2018, Executive Chairman, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, underscored that these new skip trucks have been brought in for the newly-created metropolitan, municipal district assemblies (MMDAs) aimed at augmenting the existing fleet to tackle waste management Accra.
According to him, accompanying these 500 new skip trucks were the requisite number of containers. This, he intimated, was targeted at ensuring efficient and effective waste management operations in the national capital.
He went on to add that it formed part of his outfit’s expanding strategy to meet the growing needs of the country’s population and rapid urbanisation.
“Our strategies evolve with our changing needs, and in this respect, we require the support and collaboration of all citizens and stakeholders,” he appealed.
Dr Siaw Agyepong reiterated that Zoomlion Ghana Limited fully supports the vision of the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, not only to make Accra the cleanest city, but more importantly, to create jobs and promote the private sector.
“It is in this spirit that we have already made a donation of 10 pickups among other items to AMA,” he added.
Furthermore, the executive chairman of Zoomlion disclosed that the distribution of the trucks would create additional 300 direct and about 1,000 indirect jobs within the beneficiary MMDAs.
“We see our contribution as an essential aspect of our role as private sector players. I would like to emphasise that with the continuous support of government, Zoomlion can deal effectively with the waste management situation in the country,” he assured.
In this regard, he gave the assurance that Zoomlion will continue to support policies, plans programmes and projects on waste management and work hand in hand with ministries including local government and rural development, health, environment, science, technology and innovation, and the sanitation as well as the universities and other government agencies.
Delivering the keynote address, the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama, stressed that sanitation was one area that the country must pay serious attention to. This, she went on to say must be done through the collective efforts of every Ghanaian citizen.
Accordingly, she averred that the sector was saddled by a number of challenges, key amongst which was financing.
Thus, while commending Zoomlion for the gesture, the local government and rural development minister used the opportunity to call on other private waste management companies to come on board and participate in the sanitation space.
Hajia Mahama also encouraged the MMDAs to take full advantage of Zoomlion’s waste management capacity building programmes and apply them in their jurisdictions to bring about environmental cleanliness.
For his part, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Ishmael Ashitey, drummed home the need for Ghanaians to have a positive attitude towards the environment.
“We must refrain from dumping waste into the gutters and littering about indiscriminately,” he advised.
He admonished the MMDAs to put in place a strict maintenance scheme to ensure that the skip trucks have longer life spans.
In a short address, the Deputy Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Mr Michael Gyato, called on players in the sanitation sector to up their game to enable the country achieve its sanitation goals.
“And we need more sanitation companies with the stature of Zoomlion to enable us deal with the poor sanitation conditions in our cities, towns and communities,” he charged.
