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AMA to enforce ban on sachet
water if...
Accra, July 5, Ghanadot/GNA - The Accra Metropolitan
Assembly (AMA) said on Thursday that it would go ahead and
ban the use of sachet and polythene bags, if manufacturers
of such products refused to immediately negotiate with the
AMA on ways to manage the waste.
"Manufacturers of (sachet water and polythene bags) are
hereby reminded for the last time either to revert to the
use of bio-degradable materials or come out with concrete
proposals as to how to deal with the menace of plastic
waste," Mr. Stanley Adjiri Blankson, Chief Executive of the
AMA, said in Accra on Thursday.
Briefing the press on current development in the city, he
said: "The producers of such unacceptable material should
therefore note that if AMA strikes, there shall be no U-turn
because we are statutorily mandated to care for the lives of
the five million residents in the Metropolis.”
According to Mr. Adjiri Blankson, the AMA was finding it
difficult to trace most sachet water producers because it
realized that the contact addresses embossed on most sachets
were fake.
He said the AMA was now working to trace all such illegal
manufacturers and then invite them to find out whether they
could provide funds to the AMA to recycle the waste or go
ahead with the ban.
On physical planning in the Metropolis, the AMA Chief
Executive said it would embark on another decongestion
exercise named "Operation Nimrod" to remove all unauthorized
structures placed on water-ways, drains and pavements, in
order to end flooding in the city.
"The Assembly is recruiting 150 building inspectors to
enforce building regulations and control the haphazard
springing up of un-permitted building structures," he added.
Mr Adjiri Blankson said the Assembly carried out a property
revaluation exercise to generate more revenue to meet
development needs of the people. He said the AMA would from
next month work to retrieve all debts from defaulters who
had failed to pay their property rates.
On sanitation, he noted that despite commendations made by
dignitaries who attended the just-ended African Union Summit
on the city's cleanliness, the AMA would continue to work
hard and sensitise the general public on attitudinal change
for environmental cleanliness.
He stated that attitudinal change was crucial to maintain a
healthy environment because the AMA spent about 2.5 billion
cedis (GH cedi 250,000,000) on each clean-up exercise.
The Chief Executive said AMA would not tolerate any
recalcitrant attitude of traders who continued to hawk along
major streets and pavements and advised the public to desist
from buying from those traders.
He said the AMA intended to embark on another exercise,
which would this time prosecute even those who buy from
recalcitrant traders and the traders themselves.
Mr Adjiri Blankson said the public must not think that the
Assembly's directive for embossment on taxi cabs and the
wearing of uniforms by taxi drivers had fizzled out, since
AMA only delayed the arrest of defaulters upon request by
the Ghana Transport Coordinating Council for an extension of
the deadline.
GNA
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