The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, in collaboration with the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) have begun an exercise for daily night cleaning of the Central Business District of Accra. A workforce of 1,000 people, drawn from the NYEP, are to undertake the cleaning, ensure that drains in the District become litter-free, and arrest people who throw refuse into the drains. The clean-up exercise, which started Monday evening at the Accra Rawlings Park, formed part of an exercise to rid the city of litter. The exercise, meant to enhance the sanitation situation in the city is part of making the city spick and span for Ghana's Golden Jubilee Celebrations. Stephen Asamoah Boateng, Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, who was present at the beginning of the exercise, said the exercise would not be a nine-day wonder as in previous exercises. It would be sustained after the celebration, and there would be constant supervision to ensure that refuse did not go back into the drains. The exercise went into gear under lights provided by big trucks of Zoomlion, a private waste collection company in Accra. Young men and women, holding brooms and other shovels went into action. They swept the streets, opened slabs and de-silted gutters and emptied filled mini litterbins into large trucks. Mr Asamoah Boateng said that the exercise was being done in the night so that it would not interfere with free flow of traffic and commercial activities during the day. He said the Ministry was organizing an extensive public education along the clean-up exercise, adding that a change in legislation was being pursued to update penalty for sanitation offences. Mr Asamoah Boateng said 40 people had been trained in legal procedures for sanitation offences since the re-introduction of the arrest and punishment to household sanitary offences, popularly christened "Asaman sama" which took off in Techiman last December. The Minister said recruitment of sanitary officers was underway in all the 10 regions, and was expected to be completed by February. He said waste segregation and recycling programmes would be pursued.Source: GNA