By S.O.
Dodoo, GNA
Accra, July 2, GNA – Mr Gilbert Ankrah, the
Head of the Public Relations Department of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly
(AMA) has asked students to assist the Assembly to overcome the unhygienic
conditions in the metropolis by being ambassadors of good environmental
sanitation.
He said they could do so by creating awareness
of the wrong attitude towards the environment and the negative effects of
insanitary conditions through drama.
Mr Ankrah made the suggestion when students of
the Glory New Generation at Dansoman paid a courtesy call him to know at first
hand the sanitation challenges confronting the AMA.
He said until the people changed their
negative attitudes towards poor sanitation and waste management, by avoiding
unhealthy practices that associated with indiscriminate defecating and dumping
of refuse into drains, the perennial cholera outbreak and floods would continue
to persist.
He said majority of the residents in the
metropolis had shirked their responsibilities in ensuring clean environment,
adding that some members of the public call radio stations daily to raise
issues that created the impression that “almost everyone is looking up to the
AMA for everything.”
Mr Ankrah said it was about time residents
knew the demarcation of the AMA since places like Odorkor, Dansoman, La,
Airport, East Legon were no more under the Assembly.
“It is
too common these days to see people openly committing nuisance at public places
without thinking of the effects it would have on the environment and the
economy,” he told the students.
He said
even though there were reduction in flood within the AMA jurisdiction this
year, he cautioned that “we cannot be complacent about it as it can come back
if the people continue to dump refuse into drains.”
“The bottom line is people must change their
attitude towards the environment” and that a monitoring task force team had
been directed to arrest and prosecute people who flout the laws,” Mr Ankrah
said.
He said
the task force was working in collaboration with the Police to enable the AMA
to achieve its targets of ensuring that Accra was flood-free per the vision of
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Mr Ankrah expressed concern about the impunity
with which people littered the streets and the general indiscriminate disposal
of waste everywhere by the junkies.
Mr Alex Nunoo, a teacher who led the students
expressed gratitude to the PRO for taking them through the challenges AMA was
confronting in respect of sanitation issues.
GNA