The Greater Accra Market Association (GAMA) on Thursday cleared filth in all the markets in Accra with a call on the traders to undertake regular clean-up exercise to avoid communicable diseases.

Dr Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, made the call when he addressed the traders after the six-hour exercise and appealed to them to be more responsive to their environment.

He said it was the responsibility of every trader to ensure that food sold for public consumption was not contaminated and urged the market queens to sensitise their members on hygiene to avoid contacting diseases.

Dr Vanderpuije said conscious efforts were being made by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to create public awareness on the effects of filth and urged the traders to make sanitation and cleanliness part of their everyday activity.

The Accra Mayor advised food sellers at Agbogbloshie Market to desist from selling food near gutters and other filthy areas and appealed to the chop bar operators to comply with food safety laws.

He called on the market queens to support the AMA in its quest to ensure that sanity prevailed at all the markets in Accra.

Madam Mercy Needjan, President of GAMA, called on all market leaders in the Greater Accra Region to support the AMA in its efforts at ensuring sound sanitary practices and safe environment.

She said: “We are happy and now relieved with the undertaking of the clean-up exercise because the traders were being exposed to serious health problems by inhaling bad stench emanating from the unsanitary conditions in the markets”.

She stressed the need for the market queens to encourage the members to attach special importance to environmental sanitation in order to reduce the outbreak of diseases.

Madam Needjan urged the AMA to stringently enforce its environmental bye-laws to bring sanity in all the markets of Accra.

GNA