Waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited has commended the Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan Assemblies for the pragmatic approaches they have adopted in tackling their sanitation challenges.

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in a recent move to compel citizens to observe best sanitation practices, has deployed environmental law enforcement taskforce while the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has banned residents from littering.

In a statement commending the Chief Executives of AMA and KMA -Mohammed Adjei Sowah and Osei Asibey Antwi, respectively- Zoomlion appealed to other Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to emulate the two metropolitan assemblies.

“Waste Management is a shared responsibility so as we call on other assemblies to put similar measures in place, we will also appeal to the media and the clergy to use their platforms to educate Ghanaians on best sanitation practices. 

"This is to augment the work Zoomlion and other members of the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA) are doing,” the said the statement said.

Below is the statement:

ZOOMLION COMMENDS AMA AND KMA

Ghana’s waste management giant Zoomlion Ghana Limited has commended the Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan Assemblies for their proactive efforts towards helping shape Ghanaians’ attitude to waste management.

The company learned with happiness the strategic and pragmatic efforts the two Mayors; Mohammed Adjei Sowah of AMA and Osei Assibey Antwi of KMA have recently put in place to help keep the cities of Accra and Kumasi clean.

Over the years, Zoomlion has worked tirelessly to manage Ghana’s waste but due to the indiscriminate littering by some citizens and lack of enforcement of the laws by authorities, the cities continue to be rigged with filth.

We, therefore, see the deployment of environmental law enforcement Taskforce by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and the ban on littering by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly as one of the best efforts made by the assemblies to have our citizens observe best sanitation practices. We hereby appeal to all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to emulate the efforts put up by the two metropolitan assemblies.

Waste Management is a shared responsibility so as we call on other assemblies to put similar measures in place, we will also appeal to the media and the clergy to use their platforms to educate Ghanaians on best sanitation practices to augment the work Zoomlion and other members of the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA) are doing.

We believe in the sanitation court system and therefore wish to urge the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney Generals Department to as a matter of urgency decentralize the sanitation court system across all MMDAs enough to handle sanitation issues to inculcate discipline in the citizenry for a more viable growth of our economy without disasters, floods and diseases.

We equally appeal to the leadership of the Ghana Road and Transport Unions to ensure their drivers, conductors and driver mates receive periodic briefings on how to manage waste at the stations, on the road and on arrival as Zoomlion is available to provide free education to any group that needs it.

In our collective effort to nip the waste menace in the bud, we suggest that every household must be made to get a waste bin as quickly as possible and Ghana will become the cleanest as envisaged by the President H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo for Accra to be the cleanest city in Africa.

As waste management experts, our modus operandi is to collaborate with our partners (people and institutions) interested in modern technologies and approaches to solving waste management problems.

At a forum recently organised by IMANI Africa On Sanitation, in Accra the President of ESPA and the Executive Chairman of Zoomlion Ghana limited, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyapong among other suggestions proffered as solutions to the sanitation problems, the proper enforcement of the sanitation laws and the distribution of waste bins to every household in Ghana.

Operating across the African continent in countries such as Angola, Togo, Zambia and Liberia among others, Zoomlion believes that the enforcement of the laws will enhance a cleaner environment which will make Ghanaians appreciate the work of operators in the sector better.

BY THE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTORATE