The Ashaiman Municipal Assembly (ASHMA) has marked World Cleanup Day with an intensive three-in-one sanitation and dredging exercise targeting chronic environmental challenges along the major Gbeblemɛ storm drain at the New Town Bridge.

Leading the exercise, the Ashaiman Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Freeman Tsekpo, expressed deep concern over the misuse of municipal water channels by residents who had turned sections of the storm drain into unauthorised refuse dumps.

Addressing assembly staff, machine operators and community members, he outlined a two-pronged strategy to permanently address the sanitation challenge.

“We are using extra hands and heavy machinery to make sure that we remove all the refuse dumped at the site; secondly, we are setting up a satellite monitoring system here so that after this exercise, we will not see this kind of abuse again,” he said.

As part of community policing initiatives, the MCE announced that local pig farmers operating near the area had been engaged to act as environmental wardens to deter illegal dumping.

Speaking on the structural status of the critical waterway, he noted that the Gbeblemɛ channel serves as the primary storm drain for Ashaiman and falls under the jurisdiction of the Hydrological Services Department of the Ministry of Works and Housing.

The MCE reiterated the Assembly’s continuous lobbying efforts to upgrade the ageing earth drain into a modern, fully constructed concrete storm drain.

He noted that previous overflows, which caused major floods in 2010 and 2018, as well as minor incidents up to 2024, had severely threatened residents.

He, however, highlighted that massive dredging and desilting works undertaken at the Adjei-Kojo exit point had successfully prevented severe flooding during recent seasonal rains.

Mr Tsekpo acknowledged that pressure on local sanitation infrastructure remains exceptionally high, with Ashaiman’s population exceeding 300,000 alongside intense commercial activity.

To address the challenge, he said the Assembly was aggressively promoting waste segregation by separating plastic and organic waste, supported by municipal partnerships with smart plastic recycling networks and firms such as Safisana, which converts organic waste and faecal matter into electricity.

He commended assembly members, unit committee members and residents for supporting concurrent clean-up exercises across various electoral areas to safeguard public health and promote sustainable municipal development.