By Alexander Nyarko Yeboah, GNA
Tema Oct 22, GNA - The authorities and residents of Tema Newtown have begun a sanitation revolution with the aim of ridding the town of filth that has engulfed it for decades.
Various youth groups backed by the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) and the Tema Traditional Council (TTC) came out in their numbers to clean Tema Newtown by descending into choked gutters with shovels, demonstrating the extent to which they were prepared to tackle sanitation head on.
The exercise which took place on Saturday from six in the morning through to eleven am, saw some Assembly Members in Newtown, members of the TTC, officials from TMA, the Jaase (King makers) Council, Patriotic Citizens of Tema, among others, coming out to support.
Speaking to the press on the sidelines of the cleanup campaign, the Presiding Member (PM) of the TMA, Mr. Joseph Koto, advised residents to stop the indiscriminate dumping of refuse which had brought Tema Newtown to its current state.
He also talked against open defecation by saying that, “It goes against all of us in terms of health. No matter what we do the wind will carry it across and all of us would inhale the contaminated air and get sick.”
He hinted that the TMA would soon provide dust bins at vantage points within the Metropolis to ensure that people had places to dump refuse as a cure to indiscriminate dumping of refuse.
The Chairman of the Newtown Sub-Metro of the TMA, Mr. Joseph Ashitey Larteh, said that Saturday’s campaign was just the beginning and that the exercise would go on until people began to accept the fact that poor sanitation was not good.
Mr. Larter, who was also Chairman of the Jaase Council of Tema Newtown, informed that they were so determined to go on with the exercise such that people who failed to take part could be dragged to the court for not availing themselves.
Responding to why the extent of filth in Tema Newtown, he said, “It’s human activity and the fact that residents think cleaning of filth is government’s responsibility, but we create the filth and we should be responsible for cleaning it.”
He said the population of the town had doubled tremendously because of the siting of the Tema harbour which had caused rubbish generation to increase and therefore the need for all stakeholders to join in the sanitation campaign.
He trusted that this exercise would succeed, and praised the TMA and the TTC for providing monetary and logistical support to the campaign.
The Mankralo of Tema Newtown, Nii Adjetey Ago, observed that it was not proper for people to wait for the government to clean their dirt for them because residents stood to be negatively affected by a dirty environment.
He advised them to heed to the call to clean their environment and desist from harmful practices that would create problems for all residents.
GNA
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS