People who litter the streets to be prosecuted

Accra, July 16, GNA - The Accra Waste Management Project (AWMP) on Thursday announced that with effect from Monday, July 20, people who litter the streets would be arrested and prosecuted.

"Offenders were liable to a maximum term of six months and a fine of GH¢100.00 or both," Mr Ebow Botwe, Chairman of the Project said. "There are laws that prevent people from littering but they are not applied. We will leave no stone unturned in the application of these laws and go to all length to make the law work."

Mr Botwe said this when his organisation, together with representatives of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), conducted newsmen round the Korle Lagoon Restoration Project site, to see the level of pollution of the lagoon, which is a bane of the project. The Korle Restoration Project is about three years behind schedule because of the activities of the squatter community at Sodom and Gomorrah residing along the banks of the lake. The real problem is the Agbogloshie canal which is serving as the dumping ground for all kinds of items, including plastic waste, human excreta and garbage.

Another problem is the plastic wastes that flow into the three canals during storms and end up in the lagoon. Mr Botwe argued that if these plastic wastes were not well disposed of, they would stall the project that was critical to the modernization of the city.

He said the project proposed for consideration, community labour to engage offenders to clean particular areas for a number of days. Mr Botwe said the project, which was formed by a consortium of manufacturers and sellers of goods in plastics, had provided 3,000 bins around the city and called on everyone to dump all waste they produce into the bins to avoid prosecution.

He said the number of bins would be increased to 6,000 in few days. Mr Botwe said they made some arrests recently but freed the people after educating them, but since the behaviour of members of the public had not changed the application of the law was now imminent. He said he was disappointed at the way the Sodom and Gomorrah community was behaving and called on the government to relocate the squatters immediately.

He said they would visit the project weekly to monitor events until the right thing was done for the project to be completed. "Our mission is to ensure that the project is completed for the benefit of the people," he said.

Dr Simpson Boateng, Director of Accra Metro Public Health Department, said the people of Sodom and Gomorrah would be evicted soon.