Veep Interacts with Market Leaders at Flagstaff House

Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur,has tasked market leaders to play their part by ensuring that the filth that usually engulfed the markets became a thing of the past and if possible try and organize clean up exercises on every last Saturday of the month in conjunction with the AMA for a healthy clean environment .

He made this known to the market leaders at the Flagstaff House on Monday 18th August 2014 to solicit their support on how to sustain the sanitation campaign, and fire outbreaks in the markets at the Flagstaff House in Accra.

The action followed a directive by President John Dramani Mahama to the Local Government Ministry and the city authorities to, as a matter of urgency, clear all refuse in the metropolis.

The market leaders expressed concern about the indiscriminate disposal of refuse in the market places by unknown people who leaving the erroneous impression that market women generated the filth in the markets.

The market leaders who were led by the President of the Market Women Association, Madam Mercy Nii Djan, asked the AMA to endeavour to provide garbage bins to residents to discourage people from using the markets as dump sites.

Numbering about thirty they pledged their support to the government’s campaign to sustain the efforts to rid the city and the markets in general of filth They have, however, called on the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to, as a matter of urgency reintroduce the sanitation inspectors’ concept to give meaning to the campaign.

They also called on the government to expand the markets to help fight fire in the event of a fire outbreak.

Further concerns were expressed about the activities of head porters who contributed to the sanitation situation since they slept in the open market and generated waste.

Touching on market fires the market leaders blamed the situation on the fact that there were no enough access routes to enable fire tenders to easily navigate the market in the event of fire outbreaks which made firefighting difficult.

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Julius Debrah called on them to form market cooperatives in order to receive the needed support when the needed arose.

The Vice-President last Friday embarked on an inspection tour of some notable refuse dumb areas in the metropolis to apprise himself with the level of cleanliness after he had issued a 10-day ultimatum to the AMA and other sanitation agencies to clear the huge piles of garbage in the various markets.

The AMA boss Dr Oko Vanderpuije for his part said the assembly had launched the sanitation standards implementation committee with the idea to effectively manage and collect waste in the metropolis.