Pupils urged assembly to re-site refuse container

Sekondi Nov.17 GNA - Pupils of Saint Anne's Junior Secondary School at Bakaekyir in Sekondi on Monday demonstrated against the location of a communal open refuse container behind their school, which is giving off bad odour.

The demonstration ended at the offices of the Shama-Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly at Sekondi where they petitioned Mr Simon Labi Addo, Head of the Waste Management Department of the Assembly to use his good offices to ensure that the container was removed to enable them to stay in their classrooms.

The pupils said refuse in the container has not been collected for a long time and it is piling up daily, emitting offensive odour.

They said what had compounded the problem was that some residents in the area are using their classrooms as places of convenience and they had to clean the classrooms with water every morning before classes. The pupils said the residents use human excreta to write on black boards and on the school buildings.

Replying, Mr Addo promised to see to it that the container was removed as soon as possible but urged school authorities to engage the service of watchmen to protect their schools from intruders.

He said the assembly would soon re-site all communal refuse containers near schools and has written to the Metropolitan Director of Education to purchase 240 litre refuse bins for schools.

Mr Addo said this would make it possible for the assembly to extend its door-to-door refuse collection to schools.

He said the assembly launched a programme to provide households with toilets but this was poorly patronised although the assembly was to bear half the cost of each toilet.

Mr Addo said the assembly is planning to re-introduce the scheme under the second phase of the Urban Four Project.

He said many landlords have converted places of convenience in their houses into bedrooms and currently health officers are going round to identify houses with toilets in order to prosecute owners of houses without such facilities.