Boxer, 14 others arrested for improper waste disposal, open defecation

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has arrested fifteen (15) people for dumping refuse at unauthorised places and indulging in open defecation, contrary to Sections 56 (a) and (b) of Act 851, the Public Health Act (2012).

Rebecca Barnor Owuah, 46, a sanitation worker under the Sanitation Model of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) supervised by Zoomlion Ghana Limited, and Akuley Tagoe, 25, a trader, were among those arrested for dumping waste in unauthorised places.

Bright Ayala, 25, a boxer at Jamestown's Wisdom Academy Gym; Suleman Yakubu, 56, a scrap dealer; Robert Quartey, 52; Nii Quaye Isaac, 37, a driver; Abdul-Rashid Ayuba, 37, a carpenter; Fuseini Alhassan, 31, a head porter; Ebenezer Nyarko, 26, a coconut seller; Asamoah Dennis, 39, unemployed, Jesse Bills 27, unemployed, Kwaku Jacob 20, a staff of Sikkens, Kwame Ametordzi, 30 years unemployed, Ayetey Ayequaye, 40 unemployed and Adu-Gyamfi Bismark,32, a labourer.

According to the AMA's Head of the Environmental Health Department, Florence Kuukyi, the offenders arrested between 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. at various locations in Accra's Central Business District (CBD) would be forced to sign a bond and pay the cost of abatement or face court action.

Touching on the issue of open defecation, she stressed that the drains and open spaces were not places to attend nature's call adding that it was against the AMA's sanitation by-laws.

"Open defecation leads to contamination of water sources and food...This can also cause typhoid fever, diarrhoea and cholera, this is why according to the bye-laws, every household must have a 'place of convenience' or 'toilet' and if it’s absent in a home, its occupants should visit the public toilets," she said.

She used the opportunity to call on all residents and households to patronise the household toilet facilities being constructed by the assembly.

She warned that the Assembly had intensified its enforcement exercise and would not countenance any breach of the assembly's bylaws on sanitation, and food safety.