AMA launches ‘Street Sweepers’ initiative to improve sanitation in Accra

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has launched the ‘Street Sweepers’ initiative to address littering and other related sanitation issues in the city.

The initiative, which is being supported by sports betting company BetPawa and headline sponsor of the Ghana Premier League, would see the deployment of 200 personnel to sweep four major ceremonial streets namely; John Evans Atta Mills High Street, Asafoatse Nettey Road, Kinbu Gardens through Octagon to Kinbu Gardens, and Circle to Kaneshie 1st Light. 

The sweepers, who will be working in two shifts of 12 hours, from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day, would be supported by officers of the Public Health Department of AMA to enforce the sanitation bye-laws.

Speaking at the launch at the forecourt of the AMA on Wednesday, December 14, the Chief Executive of AMA, Elizabeth Sackey, said the initiative was not a duplication of “Operation Clean Your Frontage” which was launched by the Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, in June 2020 to encourage people to take responsibility for keeping their properties clean, especially their frontages but to complement it. 

She assured that the sweepers would be motivated whilst calling on all stakeholders especially the hawkers and traders to police their immediate environs to support this exercise.

She disclosed that the City of Accra generates over 1,800 tonnes of waste daily, adding that to address the problem, over 300 sanitary offenders had been successfully prosecuted from January to date. 

“The City of Accra alone generates waste of over 1,800 tonnes daily, the highest in the country so far. Unfortunately, most of these wastes are not properly disposed of thereby creating serious health issues for the citizens… To address this, over 300 sanitary offenders, from January to date, have been successfully prosecuted and heavy fines placed on them to serve as a deterrent to others,” she said.

She said plans were far advanced to establish a sanitation court within the AMA’s jurisdiction to deal with issues of sanitation and related offences.

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She also noted that the Assembly was undertaking other initiatives to improve sanitation within the city citing a Source Separation and Compost Project aimed at diverting 50 per cent of municipal solid waste from the landfill in line with the Accra Climate Action Plan, a Zero Waste Street Project, distribution of special poly bags to street hawkers and traders to control littering within the Central Business District (CBD) among others. 

“In the coming year some of the informal waste workers and migrants will be enrolled on to the NHIS and provided with protective clothing under the Assembly’s collaboration with the Mayor’s Migration Council,” she said.

She also used the opportunity to call on stakeholders to come on board to scale up the initiative and urged other sister Assemblies to join hands with AMA to make Greater Accra the cleanest in Africa as envisioned by His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo. 

Head of PR and Sponsorship at betPawa, Nii Armah Ashong-Katai, noted that their collaboration with AMA was to achieve the company’s mission of empowering people by providing opportunities to change their lives.

“There is no simpler or more powerful way to change millions of lives for the better than by improving sanitation,” he said.

BetPawa contributed 200 coats, 100 raincoats, and 100 waste bins to the launch of Sweepers on the Street.

Present at the launch were representatives of religious bodies, the Ghana Tourism Authority, the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, security agencies, Heads of Department and Staff of AMA, Market queen mothers, and a team from the South Korean Environment Ministry.