Nana Kodwo Conduah the Sixth, Paramount Chief of the Edina Traditional Area, on Tuesday organized a clean-up exercise in Elmina and its suburbs, to supplement work done on the National Sanitation Day.

The five-hour exercise which began at 06.00 hours, was also to herald the Omanhene’s 52nd birthday which falls on Friday, November 14.

It received massive response from the residents, youth and other traditional leaders, staff of Zoomlion, police personnel, and staff of the Komenda-Edina-Abrem-Municipal Assembly.

Led by Nana Conduah and the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, the Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem (KEEA) Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Isaac Kweku Sam, the group de-silted major drains and cleared emerging refuse dump sites in the town.

Vehicular movement and business activities were restricted till the end of the exercise at 10:30 hours, with the confiscation of goods of a few traders who flouted the order.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Nana Conduah explained that the exercise was organized on Tuesday instead of Saturday, since members of the community by virtue of   their fishing activities did not go fishing on Tuesdays.

He said there were plans to organize the exercise fortnightly, to re-kindle the communal work and clean-up legacy handed over by their forefathers, and called on residents to disassociate politics from the exercise, but rather see it as a shared responsibility.

Mr. Vanderpuye commended the initiative, saying it was an ingenious way of adding to the sanitation day programme, adding that “the step could win Nana Conduah, the cleaner city award which would be initiated by the Ministry”.

He welcomed the decision by the people of Elmina and other fishing communities along the coast to organize clean-up exercises regularly, instead of the first Saturday of every month initiated by the Ministry.

He observed that every society had a unique way of handling clean-up exercises, and that the Ministry would support such initiatives since the sanitation agenda was not an event but a continued process.

Mr. Sam commended the chief for the initiative and declared the support of the Assembly, adding that the initiative was to promote the developmental agenda of the Municipality.