Rawlings inspects rubbish dumps in Kumasi

President Jerry John Rawlings over the weekend inspected some rubbish dumps in Kumasi to check on how far the authorities have gone with a programme to rid the once Garden City of refuse.

The President, on his way to Nsoatre in the Brong Ahafo Region to attend the funeral of Obrempong Hinneh Akwasi, Paramount Chief of Nsoatre Traditional Area, inspected sites at Aboabo, Ashanti New Town and Asafo. The heaps of rubbish had been cleared with huge containers provided for the residents to deposit their waste.

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) launched an exercise to clear heaps of refuse engulfing the city two months ago and appealed to the government for assistance.

Mr Samuel Nuamah-Donkoh, Ashanti Regional Minister said President Rawlings directed that KMA should be assisted to clear the refuse to prevent an outbreak of an epidemic. Mr Nuamah-Donkoh said a private company, which was contracted to do the job has cleared 135,000 tonnes of refuse over the past two months at a cost of 10 billion cedis.

A total of 11 huge refuse containers have been placed at Subin, 23 at Manhyia, 19 at Bantama and 9 at Asokwa.

An official of the KMA told the Ghana News Agency that the President's timely intervention has saved the city from an "obvious outbreak of epidemic". He suggested that political parties should organise their supporters to undertake clean up exercises. "Clean up exercises were common during the days of the erstwhile PNDC and I am wondering why political parties cannot mobilise their supporters to clean their surroundings," he said.

As the convoy of President Rawlings moved through the early morning traffic to the airport to continue his journey, people could be heard asking "what is the President doing in Kumasi this early morning? Is there going to be a function?".