Government has promised to provide every household in the country a waste bin each under the ‘’One Household-One Bin” Project’ to eradicate indiscriminate littering and keep the country clean.
This project takes off just after the $74 million contract awarded to Jospong Group of Companies to supply waste bins was cancelled by government on account of non-performance.
“There have been indiscriminate littering in the country and a lot of the households have challenges acquiring the proper storage facility for their solid waste. The project has come up basically to help reduce indiscriminate littering and ensuring that households have adequate solid waste storage facility.”
Beginning with the North Ayawaso Municipal Assembly, the project is aimed at distributing a minimum of about three hundred thousand (300,000) waste bins to houses in the country within six months and one million waste bins (1,000, 000) in 2 years.
To enhance the standard of living, the idea is line with President Akufo-Addo’s vision of making Accra the cleanest city in the entire African continent. A commitment he promised Ghanaians.
“Our ambition is to distribute one million waste bins in two years so our target is to be able to distribute about six hundred thousand waste bins in 2019 and in 2020, we round it up with the four hundred thousand waste bins.”
According to Mr Lawrence Laryea, the Project Coordinator in charge of the project, the waste bins will come with a tracking device and this will enable easy monitoring of bins at the different locations.
He mentioned that scanners will be installed in the trucks to help monitor the service provider.
“All the waste bins we are distributing are tagged. In fact they have identification tags, basically to know where each bin we have given out is. And also the trucks that will service them will be provided with scanners to know whether this bins are being serviced or not.”
Speaking at the training organised to sensitize the media and the public, Mr Laryea noted that the Assembly will have the data of every household using these bins.
To facilitate this process a committee called the Joint Distribution Monitoring Team (JDMT) will be set up to help in the registration and distribution of waste bins.
It was said that the JDMT will act as an intermediary between the people and the Assembly for successful operations. And as a means of job creation some NABCO and National Service Personnel will be involved in the field distribution of the waste bins to ensure households get adequate information.
The Universal Plastic Products Recycling (UPPR), a private plastic recycling company, whose aim is to promote plastic recycling awareness in Ghana, is said to be the provider and distributor of all waste bins in the country. They are also to provide the tracking device installed in the bins.
The project coordinator hinted that every household will be made to pay a fee for services rendered.
He added that in case of negligence on the part of the household, they will be fined. And all payments will be made through electronic means such as mobile money and agents in order to avoid misappropriation of funds no cash will be allowed.
He encouraged Ghanaians to handle the waste bins properly and avoid littering so as to keep the country clean.
Mr Laryea is confident that the ‘One household One bin’ project will be a success.
Ecobank Ghana Limited has been announced as the sole provider of funds for the “One Household One Bin project”.
