Sunyani Municipal Assembly to Embark on Clean up Exercise

Mr. Kwame Twumasi Awuah, the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, has announced that the Assembly will on the 11th March 2006, embark on a massive clean up exercise to rid the municipality of filth.

This follows a directive from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) to municipal and metropolitan assemblies to embark on clean up exercises to improve sanitation as well as the health of the people.

The exercise is expected to commence at 6am and will last for three hours.

Speaking at a meeting of stakeholders on sanitation on how best the municipality could ensure good sanitation practices, Mr. Twumasi, pointed out that the exercise would also rekindle the communal spirit in the municipality as well as serve as a reminder to keep the community clean.

He said the public has a responsibility to protect the environment and that the fight against it should not be left to the assembly alone.

He observed that sanitation alone takes about half the resources of the assembly and therefore urged voluntary organisations, NGOs and other stakeholders to join the exercise to give the municipality the needed facelift.

The MCE noted that the clean up exercise has come to stay and pledged the commitment of the assembly to such exercises periodically.

The MCE could not disclose how much money will go into the exercise but said a committee has been set up to look into that.

In January this year, the Brong Ahafo regional correspondent for the Ghanaian Times, Kingsley Hope came under attack when he reported that Sunyani was filthy.

In the said story, the reported said he spoke to the Municipal Environmental Health Officer, Gabriel Dalous on the sanitation situation.

Surprisingly, the assembly called a press conference and condemned Hope for doing a story almost the entire municipality commended.

Mr Dalous also denied ever granting an interview to the reporter but another reporter from GBC who accompanied Hope, confirmed that Mr Dalous spoke to Hope.

When Space FM called the MCE for comments on the sanitation situation, he failed to impress listeners.

Some weeks after the Ghanaian Times story, a team of sanitation and waste management experts from the district of Nanaimo in Canada, came to Sunyani to dialogue with officials of the Sunyani Municipal Assembly on proper waste management in the municipality.