Littering worries Ashaiman MCE

Ibrahim Baidoo, the Ashaiman Municipal Chief Executive has noted that because Ashaiman is a cosmopolitan city, with people from different backgrounds, the residents, including the educated, throw refuse into drains and open places, thus creating insanitary conditions in the town.

He has, therefore, called on the residents to change their attitude towards, since that is the only way they can rid the Municipality of the filth.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the paper, Hon Baidoo explained that when individuals drink pure water and litter the ground, it generates garbage.

“When you throw a piece of toffee paper on the ground in Indonesia, a young child as young as five (5) will pick it up and give it back to you, yet in Ghana educated people litter around,” he revealed.

He noted an emerging phenomenon where young people, who are engaged in the collection of garbage in fertilizer sacks for a fee, dump them on the streets instead of sending the waste to designated dumping site.

Hon Baidoo revealed that “Whilst the Assembly is taking serious look at how to address the waste management concerns, we also wish to caution all those engaged in these activities to desist from it, so that together we can help make Ashaiman clean”.

He noted that his outfit is enforcing the sanitation bye-laws so as to maintain a clean, safe and serene environment in all settlements to promote the social economic and physical well-being of all sections of the population.

“The Assembly shall collaborate with the court to take the appropriate action to enforce the bye-laws, so that we can control sanitation and prevent filth within the Assembly’s area of jurisdiction”, he hinted.

Touching on the poor state of roads in the Municipality, Mr. Baidoo revealed that vigorous efforts were being made to fix the roads to facilitate the free movement of both goods and people to improve productivity.

He was optimistic that by the end of the year, residents shall experience massive improvement in the road sector, saying “Apart from the main Ashaiman dual carriage road, which is receiving urgent attention, a number of roads and streets in the municipality shall see bitumen surfacing this year”.

On congestion in the area, Hon Baidoo hinted: “we don’t have enough bus stops, that is why most drivers stop their vehicles in the middle of the road for passengers to embark and disembark; so we will purchase some of the property in the central business area and use them as taxi loading bays.

“More access routes will be created for drivers so that they will not necessarily ply the market roads”, he said, adding “Ashaiman fitter lane road will soon be expanded so that drivers from Roman Down and Adjei Kojo will use it, instead of using the main road to dodge traffic”.