Shop owners in Abokobi desilt choked gutters as assembly embarks on operation ‘Own Your Frontage’

The Municipal Environmental Health Officer (MEHO) for the Ga East Municipal Assembly (GEMA), Charles Ampomah Asabre, has cautioned residents and business owners in the Municipality to regularly clean their frontages to avoid prosecution.

He made this call after he led a team of Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) of the Assembly to force business owners along the Abokobi-Pantang road to desilt choked gutters in front of their shops.

For months, gutters along the Agbogba Junction to Abokobi stretch of the Abokobi-Pantang road were choked with silt and plastic materials making water to stagnate on sections of the road even with light showers of rain.

Several verbal caution by officials from the Assembly, including the Presiding Member (PM), Hon. Jesse Nii Noi Anum, would not move the shop owners to clear the gutters choked with filth and sand.

However, the MEHO and his EHOs swopped on the shop owners and served them notices to desilt the choked gutters or face the full rigours of the law, including locking up their shops and getting instant fines.

This move yielded the desired result as the shop owners swiftly descended into the gutters to desilt and clear the filth in and around them.

Speaking to the media, Mr. Charles Ampomah Asabre observed that most culprits care less about the insanitary conditions around their business premises, especially those who trade along roads, with the notion that it is the Assembly's duty to desilt the gutters and clear their filth.

According to the MEHO, the Assembly's Bye-Laws on Sanitation make it mandatory for residents and business operators to own their frontages and ensure they are kept tidy at all times.

"We have this clearly in our Bye-Laws, that, if you own a shop, you're responsible for ensuring that the surroundings of the shop is first clean, both your frontage and behind you. Just as you come and sweep your shop, you've to make sure that behind your shop and in front of your shop is free of weeds, rubbish and any kind of filth", he explained.

"The most important thing is the drain in front of your shop. A lot of people think that it's Government's work to come and clean the drains but we have it in our laws and it is our civil responsibility to ensure that if you have a shop, the drain in front of your shop is part of your responsibility to clean", the MEHO added.

Mr. Asabre expressed absolute delight with and greatly commended the work the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Hon. Henry Quartey, was doing to ensure the enforcement of the sanitation Bye-Laws of the Assemblies and keep Accra clean.

"I'm very much happy about the Hon. Regional Minister's efforts in ensuring that these laws are enforced. The kind of vigour and support he has come to give us is so laudable and we're poised to ensure that his vision comes true", he remarked.

He said the Ga East Municipal Assembly is on track in enforcing the sanitation Bye-Laws and ensuring shop owners take care of their frontages and clean the gutters close to them.

"For us in Ga East, we have started. We have ensured that all the shop owners have desilted their drains, they've cleared it of rubbish and silt. We've started with Abokobi to Boi (junction), and we'll move to the other parts of the Municipality. So shop owners are thereby being informed that they need to do it before we get there", the MEHO stated.

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