Minister for Sanitation, Cecilia Abena Dapaah has disclosed that government’s promise to ensure Accra is the cleanest city in Africa by 2020 is 85% complete.
Speaking to the media as part of a sanitation tour and cleanup exercise in parts of Maamobi in Accra, on Tuesday August 11, the sanitation minister revealed that 100 per cent was achieved during the lock down period in the wake of the COVID-19.
She however, bemoaned how citizen’s activities continue to derail government’s efforts.
“When we don’t do these things of throwing rubbish into the drains, the drains will be clearer and neater and our homes will also be clean because the Assembly has been tasked to send round the tricycles to pick up our waste”.
“So I am telling you and I know you will quote it that, we are 85% through [with making Accra the cleanest city]. You all saw the 100% we achieved during the lockdown. So the question is, who makes Accra dirty?”
She highlighted the need for each house to have at least one dustbin to store their waste temporarily since the local assemblies will dispatch tricycles for collection.
President Nana Akufo-Addo on April 24, 2017, pledged to make Accra the neatest and best city in Africa by the end of his first term of office.
“The commitment we are making and which I want you all to make with me is that by the time we end our four-year term, Accra is going to be the cleanest city in Africa,” he stated. Although some citizens have cast doubt over achieving such promise, the Sanitation Minister noted that continuous sensitization of the public on a clean environment could show some positive improvement”.
President Akufo-Addo said the beauty of the national capital had deteriorated over the years as a result of various human activities that had destroyed the once glorious city.
He recalled that when he was growing up in Accra, the Jamestown area was the centre of the city, but said history had taken that away from the good people of the area.
“In our time, we are going to bring back the glory of Jamestown and British Accra,” he stressed.
In April 2019, when the Sanitation Minister was asked about projected timelines to achieving the promise, she said “the President will go for two terms and at the end of that term, Accra would have been [cleanest city] and we are on course…God is in control and the battle is still the Lords.”
She told the media when she took her turn at the Meet the Press that, the President is so serious with his call to the extent that he has prioritised the Ministry’s needs.
“…he has put the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources on the top priority list of government to be able to access all the budget that it needs,” she stated.
