ENVIRONMENT

Help AMA to succeed in tackling sanitation – PRO
Mr Gilbert Ankrah, the Head of the Public Relations Department of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has asked students to assist the Assembly to overcome the unhygienic conditions in the metropolis by being ambassadors of good environmental sanitation.

Date Created : 7/3/2018 2:26:01 AM : Story Author : GNA


He said they could do so by creating awareness of the wrong attitude towards the environment and the negative effects of insanitary conditions through drama.

Mr Ankrah made the suggestion when students of the Glory New Generation at Dansoman paid a courtesy call him to know at first hand the sanitation challenges confronting the AMA.

He said until the people changed their negative attitudes towards poor sanitation and waste management, by avoiding unhealthy practices that associated with indiscriminate defecating and dumping of refuse into drains, the perennial cholera outbreak and floods would continue to persist.

He said majority of the residents in the metropolis had shirked their responsibilities in ensuring clean environment, adding that some members of the public call radio stations daily to raise issues that created the impression that “almost everyone is looking up to the AMA for everything.”

Mr Ankrah said it was about time residents knew the demarcation of the AMA since places like Odorkor, Dansoman, La, Airport, East Legon were no more under the Assembly.

“It is too common these days to see people openly committing nuisance at public places without thinking of the effects it would have on the environment and the economy,” he told the students.

He said even though there were reduction in flood within the AMA jurisdiction this year, he cautioned that “we cannot be complacent about it as it can come back if the people continue to dump refuse into drains.”

“The bottom line is people must change their attitude towards the environment” and that a monitoring task force team had been directed to arrest and prosecute people who flout the laws,” Mr Ankrah said.

He said the task force was working in collaboration with the Police to enable the AMA to achieve its targets of ensuring that Accra was flood-free per the vision of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Mr Ankrah expressed concern about the impunity with which people littered the streets and the general indiscriminate disposal of waste everywhere by the junkies.

Mr Alex Nunoo, a teacher who led the students expressed gratitude to the PRO for taking them through the challenges AMA was confronting in respect of sanitation issues.