President John Mahama on Saturday assured Ghanaians that Accra will bounce back after the June 29 flood disaster.
The flood affected seven regions of Ghana, with the Greater Accra Region being the hardest hit, leading to the loss of 13 lives, with six persons still unaccounted for.
The President therefore set aside Friday, July 10, and Saturday, July 11, as national general cleaning days in the seven regions affected by the recent floods, to help reduce the risk of further flooding ahead of the expected heavy rains.
Speaking on the two-day day of the national cleanup exercise at Alajo in Accra, President Mahama said: “Ghana is a resilient country… and we’ll bounce back better than before.”
He noted that the turnout was fantastic on the first day of the national cleanup exercise and that people came out to help clean their neighbourhoods.
The President, however, appealed to those who were still in their homes and had not come out to join others in working to achieve the goal of ridding the city of the massive filth after the flood.
He also indicated that in the past, during clean-up exercises, some people left the garbage they had taken out of the gutters on the roadside without following up to ensure it was collected and properly disposed of.
He said when it rained, the garbage washed back into the gutters, causing blockages and flooding again, so he encouraged the public to concentrate on scooping all that would be removed from the drains to be sent to the appropriate dump sites.
President Mahama acknowledged the enormous task and garbage in the city and said although the work could not be completed by the people alone in a day, the Army and other agencies would continue until the drains were all cleared.
He said there were six waste transfer stations built more than nine years ago that, unfortunately, were not put into operation.
The President directed Zoomlion Ghana Limited to open the waste transfer stations in Accra so that the ‘aboboyaa’ (three-wheeled motorised tricycles) and others could take the garbage to these sites for proper disposal, so they don’t need to go all the way to Amasaman to dispose of the waste.
President Mahama explained that the government would later ensure that the garbage at the transfer stations was transferred by the bigger trucks to the site at Amasaman; hence, he reiterated his directive to all the ‘aboboyaas’ that were taking part in the national clean-up exercise to go to the nearest waste transfer station to offload.
President Mahama expressed gratitude to Ghanaians for participating in the two-day national clean-up exercise.
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