Regional News of Thursday, 11 February 2010

Source: GNA

Tanker Operators to register with Assembly

Teshie, Feb 11, GNA - Water Tanker Operators in the Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Assembly (LEKMA) have been directed to register with the Assembly, in order to regulate their operations within the Municipality. Mr Daniel Amartey Mensah, Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) who gave the directive in an interaction with newsmen on the water situation in the Municipality at his residence at Teshie, said this has become necessary because LEKMA expected the operators to fill their tankers from its hydrants.

Mr Mensah expressed concern about the irregular flow of water within the Municipality and blamed the situation on a whole lot of illegal connections uncovered during an investigation by the Municipal Security Committee in December last year.

He said the activities of underground well operators also posed a threat to the water situation within the Municipality, and therefore urged both tanker drivers and well operators to register and obtain waybills from LEKMA to legalise their activities.

The MCE said the Municipal Security Committee (MUSEC) would soon mount temporal barriers to check the activities of the operators in order to flush out recalcitrant ones.

On unauthorized structures in the Municipality, Mr Mensah said it was a source of worry to the Assembly, because in spite of the several warnings given to residents, structures were springing up by leaps and bounds within the Municipality.

He warned that structures on government lands, as well as those built in waterways, and others on the shoulders of roads, would soon be pulled down, adding that LEKMA would prosecute owners of those structures to recover from them, the cost of the demolition exercises. Turning to the refuse situation within the Municipality, the MCE said since June last year, the Assembly's refuse had been disposed of in the Ga South District, because its Composite Plant was not functioning. The situation, he said, posed a lot of challenges to the Assembly since it adversely affected its financial stance.

Touching on Education in the Municipality, Mr Mensah said with the completion of school infrastructure, there would be a remarkable improvement in education, because the shift system would then be phased out. On the School Feeding Programme, the MCE said out of the 40 basic schools in the Municipality, only 12 were beneficiaries of the programme. He, therefore, urged the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to increase the number of beneficiary schools within the Municipality.