Accra Mayor, Mohammed Adjei Sowah says the capital is on course to become the cleanest city in Africa.

According to him, the phenomenon of heaps of garbage which were a common sight on the shoulders of major roads is now a thing of the past.

“As I speak to you today, you may not find mountains of refuse in Accra as it used to be when we came to office and that is a matter of great achievement to us he said.

“We have been able to deploy people onto the streets that are doing waste picking on the streets. The household coverage of waste collection is now almost 80%. We are indeed winning the war,” he stated.

This is not the first time war has been declared on filth. Alfred Oko Vanderpuije who was Mayor before Adjei Sowah declared a similar war and so was the Mayor before him.

Interestingly, each Mayor has had to leave office the same way he met the city or worse than what triggered the declaration of war.

Last year, the president, Nana Akufo-Addo joined the Mayors’ crusade in declaring war on filth in Ghana and promised to make Ghana the cleanest city in Africa.

His appointed Mayor, Adjei Sowah is convinced the government is on the right path to winning the war against filth.

Mr Sowah, however, told Joy News’ Maxwell Agbagba their major challenge is the filth at the various marketplaces.

“The challenge sometimes is the major markets. The Agbogbloshie, Okaishie, Kantamanto, Makola etc. They are areas where we have a bit of a challenge.  Strategies are being deployed to be able to combat it and win that war as well,” he said.

On the issue of open defecation, the AMA boss said work is still on course.

“Within the last couple of months we have managed to provide over 500 household toilets within the Accra Metropolitan Assembly… It is a project that we took over and aggressively pursuing it.

He said there is a taskforce commissioned to inspect and prosecute house owners who do not have toilets in their homes.